


The Truth Always Comes Out

by angstbot



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Slow Burn, Smut, Suicidal Thoughts, Supporting Character Death, mentions of F/M (not explicit), repeated physical assault, threat/fear of sexual assault
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-13
Updated: 2014-04-28
Packaged: 2018-01-15 14:14:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 29,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1307788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angstbot/pseuds/angstbot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Emma and Regina pretend to be dating because [spoilers for 3x12] and then find they kind of mean it.</p><p>Assumes knowledge of 3x12, 3x13, 3x14, 3x15, and 3x16. Mind the updated tags for Chapter 8.</p><p>NOW COMPLETE.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Non-redacted summary: In which Emma and Regina pretend to be dating because it gets Henry back into Regina’s life even without his memories and then find they kind of mean it.
> 
> FYI, I’m going with the theory that Hook coordinated with the Storybrooke folk in going to get Emma.
> 
> This story will almost certainly become AU/divergent timeline when the next episode airs, but for now . . .
> 
> I have the feeling it's going to be a long one. It will also get really smutty in a hurry because that's how I roll, so tagging preemptively.

About half an hour into Emma’s tearful, perplexed, hug-filled reunion with Snow and David, it hit her. “Regina. I have to tell Regina.”

“Emma-” Snow began, only to have her daughter cut her off.

“Don’t,” the blonde snapped, uninterested in this blood feud stuff anymore. “This has to be just as hard on her as it has been on you guys. We can’t keep this from her.” The former sheriff tried not to dwell on the intensity of her reaction, tried not to think about the way Regina’s face had flashed through her mind when she remembered who she was.

“It's been worse for her, actually,” her mother explained gently. “That was what I was going to tell you. She isn’t doing very well with losing Henry. We had each other. You had him.” She paused to give her next words weight. “She has nothing.”

“And now, to have him back but not really-” Emma couldn’t even finish the thought. “I have to go. I have to go _now_.”

**

“Emma,” Regina breathed as she opened the door, just as she had when she’d touched the curse scroll all those months ago. Her eyes immediately started darting around, looking for Henry.

“He doesn’t remember,” the blonde said quietly, unable to think of a way to soften it.

“I know,” the older woman said, her tone brittle as she stepped back to let Emma into the house. “I could only make one dose of potion until the next full moon and obviously it had to be for you. But I thought you might bring him. I just- wanted to see-” her voice broke.

“I’m sorry,” and the former sheriff truly was. “I _will_ bring him, tomorrow. I’ll think of something to tell him. Are you-?”

“Don’t you dare,” the queen cut her off, turning back from closing the door behind them with fire in her eyes. “Don’t you fucking dare. Of course I’m not okay.” She radiated agony from every pore, and Emma found herself stepping closer, reaching up to lay a comforting hand on the older woman’s upper arm. That place she always touched her.

The contact seemed to break the surface tension that was holding Regina together, and she crumpled into herself. Emma immediately, instinctively gathered her up in her arms to provide what comfort she could. The blonde could feel the older woman trembling, fighting to hold back tears, and she murmured against her temple, “It’s okay for you to cry. It’s also okay if you don’t trust me. I’m here either way.”

That seemed to open the floodgates, and immediately the queen was weeping into Emma’s shoulder, chin tucked into the collar of her leather jacket, and all the blonde could do was stroke her hair and make soothing noises and ache on her behalf for long, long moments.

Gradually, Regina’s sobs slowed, then stopped, and she pulled back just enough to look the former sheriff in the eye, not quite breaking their contact yet. “Why?”

“‘Why,’ what?”

“Why do this for me? This isn’t who we are to each other.”

“It isn’t who we’ve been,” Emma agreed. “But I think we can be whoever the hell we want to each other. And as sarcastic as you were about being friends when we got to Neverland, I think that by the end we-” she paused, searching for the right phrasing for those little moments when they’d understood each other perfectly. “We had a connection,” she said after a beat.

“‘A connection’ is something I can work with,” the older woman conceded, finally stepping back. The blonde felt the loss of her immediately. “Especially since I no longer have a son,” and the bitterness was back full-force.

“Hey, you can see him. I’ll bring him over,” the blonde found herself wheedling, surprised by her own persistence in trying to snap Regina out of this funk.

“Yes, I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to spend time with a stranger,” the queen replied at her driest, and Emma found that little edge of her old attitude wonderfully familiar.

“Well yes, it will be the three of us-” and she stopped, the phrase echoing something Henry had said. _It would still be good just the three of us._ What if-

“Emma?” Regina questioned, and the former sheriff realized she’d trailed off mid-sentence.

“This is crazy, but what if we tell him we’re dating?”

“Excuse me?”

“When Walsh proposed, Henry said he knew it was serious because he was the only person I dated he ever met.”

“You’re engaged?” That couldn’t possibly have been a little flicker of hurt across the queen’s face, could it?

“No, he-” better to leave that can of worms unopened for now, “I didn’t accept. The point is, if Henry believed _we_ were dating and it was serious, then we could all three hang out and you’d see him a lot.”

“So you’re going to go from almost engaged to ‘serious’ with me?  Of all the harebrained schemes-”

 “I know, it’s stupid,” Emma conceded before Regina could really get rolling. “But it might be what we can do for now. I don’t know what else would be plausible.” She shrugged. “I’m open to other suggestions.”

Of course it was stupid. It was completely stupid precisely because of what leaving Regina had made her realize, what the potion had made her realize once more, what was hitting her hard in the chest all over again now that she was in the queen’s presence. The blonde now remembered vividly the way she regretted immediately not even hugging the mayor goodbye, had almost turned back just to touch her one more time. She knew now that she had a very real emotional attachment to the older woman. 

If she were to call it like it was, a very real attraction too. Sleeping with Walsh had been perfectly adequate, but he’d also felt heavy on top of her, like her body really wanted to be covered by a smaller frame. She’d stopped looking when he went down on her after one too many times expecting silky dark hair when she glanced. She had quite honestly never even thought of herself as heteroflexible but she’d been having very vivid, very specific, very continual fantasies of strong, smooth legs wrapping around her waist and the hot slick press of aroused woman just above her pubic bone.

And now she knew it was Regina. That it had always been Regina.

The whole “Walsh is a flying monkey” thing had taught her once and for all that happy endings and real relationships were not on the table for the savior, and it would never have been on the table with Regina regardless. She knew it was crazy to even want it and crazier still to indulge that desire with a fake relationship. But she needed _something_ , and this might just also work for the Henry problem, and damn it if she had to sacrifice as the savior she deserved a little comfort for her trouble.

“Look, I have to get back,” she said, stepping toward the door. “I had to leave Henry with Hook, of all people. If you come up with a better idea before breakfast tomorrow, you have my number, but if not that’s what I’m going with. We’ll be here at 9?” The queen nodded.

Emma paused on the doorstep to grip Regina’s arm again in farewell, and then somehow they were hugging again, just breathing in each other’s presence. As they parted, the former sheriff kissed the queen on the temple and the older woman slid her hand down into the blonde’s palm, squeezing just a second, easy and comfortable and unlike them. Unlike they’d been.

Perhaps because of how intently they were looking into each other’s eyes, neither of them noticed that they had an audience.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, this is already not canon-compliant even before the next episode airs, just from the promo that just went around Twitter. But let’s keep calm and ship SwanQueen. Though I saw a tweet from Adam that suggested the promo may be deliberately misleading, so who knows?
> 
> So, everybody is super excited about this and I really hope I can live up to people’s expectations and not, like, crack under the pressure. 
> 
> Added tags for all characters with speaking parts.
> 
> The full-blown smut is still in the future because, well, somehow I’m actually writing plot and I now I gotta build up to it, but there’s a little something.

Walsh waited until Regina had closed the door and Emma was safely around the corner before leaping into the sky from his perch in a nearby tree. Zelena was not going to be happy about this, he knew, but he flew immediately to tell her anyway. Delaying the inevitable inevitably made the punishment worse, in his experience.

As predicted, the witch worked herself into a towering rage as she heard his report. “You were supposed to keep her away! If your bungling undoes me-” she thundered, and he cowered silently, knowing better than to answer and hoping she wasn’t going to rip his wings off again.

“Emma Swan seemingly practices curse-breaking as a hobby, and now you tell me not only is she _here_ despite you being _specifically_ assigned to prevent that, but she has embarked on some sort of _relationship_ with Regina? You know perfectly well this curse is built around the queen. If she finds happiness-” The green woman trailed off in disgust. “Get out of my sight, mangy ape.” He skulked off, grateful to have escaped punishment for once. “And keep an eye on them!” she shouted at his back.

**

“Hey kid, wake up,” Emma said, shaking him gently. “It’s time to get moving. We have breakfast plans. There’s someone I want you to meet.” Henry was definitely heading into teenager-hood now, becoming progressively harder to wake up in the morning, and today was no exception. He just groaned and pulled his pillow over his head as he snuggled down farther into the rollaway bed. “Henry!” she insisted, more sharply this time.

“All right,” he grumbled, sitting up groggily.

“Sleep well?” she asked solicitously, but he just grunted and squinted in the morning light and made a beeline for the bathroom of the room they’d gotten at Granny’s. Emma sighed. Morning wood and shower masturbation were aspects of parenting a teenage boy she could really do without.

They were ready to go soon enough, but as Henry was tying his shoes, it hit her. The blonde pulled out her phone and texted Regina: _Hide the pictures of Henry_.

 **Did you just think of that?** came the almost-instantaneous reply, and it was so Regina that she was torn between smiling and feeling insulted.

 _Cut me some slack. Scheming is your department._ Realizing how that would sound, she regretted it as soon as she hit Send. _I’m sorry. It’s early. I didn’t mean that._

She had time to hustle Henry out the door and to the car before the next reply came, long enough that she started to worry. **Yes, you did. But I deserve it.** And there was that bitterness again, and it shouldn’t pierce her this much.

_Not anymore. Gotta stop texting and drive. We’ll be there in a few, ok?_

**

Standing in the foyer of the mayoral mansion, Emma realized she hadn’t planned this as thoroughly as she probably should have. Certainly, not as thoroughly as Regina would have; she’d meant the scheming comment partially as a compliment. “Henry, meet Regina. She’s someone important in my life that I wanted you to get to know.” That was lame, but hopefully sufficient.

The queen smiled, but had a telltale shimmer of wetness in her eyes that only someone who knew her well would be able to see. “I’m so glad to finally see you. I’ve heard so much about you, dear.”

“I’d say me too, but I uh- haven’t heard about you. No offense,” he added quickly, looking at Emma with mild accusation.

This was Emma's cue to tell the lie. “Well, kid, Regina and I knew each other before, about a year ago, but you didn’t meet her because at the time I didn’t think our relationship was serious.” Henry’s eyebrows started trying to crawl off his face, and she went on hurriedly, “But when Walsh proposed, I- um- reevaluated my priorities and realized I’d made the wrong decision. So, here we are.” She hoped there was enough truth in this to not set off his lie detector ability. Of all the things for him to inherit, that one was pretty inconvenient.

“I didn’t know you liked girls,” he said, clearly baffled.

“I don’t,” she said immediately.  “I mean,” she stuttered, “just Regina. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” This was going well. She looked over at the older woman, who was switching between drinking Henry in and smirking at her. Their eyes met and held.

“Okay, wow, yeah, I believe it now. Could you guys _not_ look at each other like that in front of me?”

“Like what, dear?” Regina asked, cocking her head in confusion.

“Like you want to make out.” He shuddered. “Because yeah, she’s my mom.” The little hurt that flickered across the queen’s face sliced Emma down to the soul, and she rested a soothing hand on the older woman’s shoulder, pleasantly surprised when she leaned into it.

“Of course, dear,” Regina said, pulling out her politician poker face. “I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” She cleared her throat. “I have breakfast ready, if you’re hungry. It’s just right through here,” she added, leading the way.

 As Emma met Henry’s eyes, he had a knowing look. She shrugged at him and tipped her head that he should follow. He was certainly her kid. And Regina’s, whether he knew it or not, she realized as he smirked at her before he turned to go.

**

It turned out to be a lovely family breakfast during which Regina managed to serve Henry’s favorite foods and talk about his favorite comics without ever tipping him off, and Emma was goddamn impressed. Their son, it seemed, was won over, at least enough to be agreeable when they scheduled a picnic for the next day. And so it was that they found themselves at the park with more of Regina’s excellent cooking, and Emma managed to concoct a short errand to give the older woman a tiny bit of time alone with the boy.

As the blonde walked back up the hill to join them, kite secured, she paused when she heard their conversation, still out of their line of sight.

“Why do you look at me like that, Regina?” Fuck, that kid was way too perceptive for this deception’s own good.

“Like what, dear?”

“Like it hurts but you can’t stop yourself.” The former sheriff’s eyes slid shut as a sympathetic ache sparked in her chest, leaving her unsure what to do.

“I-” Regina’s voice broke. “I lost my son. Around a year ago. And you- remind me of him.” Her pain was palpable.

“Was that why you and my mom broke up in the first place?” Henry asked, and Emma wanted to smack him upside the head for being so damn forthright.

“Something like that,” the queen agreed.

“But now?”

“Now I feel very glad to have her back. And to have- met you.” Emma was sure Henry hadn’t heard the tiny hitch of substitution.

“I got the kite!” she said too loudly as she took the last few steps into their range of awareness. “Henry, why don’t you get it set up? You’re the one with the spatial skills in this family.” As he walked away, she sank down beside Regina on the blanket.

“You heard,” the older woman murmured, and it wasn’t a question.

“I’m sorry,” was the only thing Emma could think of to say. Regina just sighed, and the blonde found herself throwing an arm around her. The queen’s head tucked perfectly against her shoulder as she leaned in, and Emma rested her cheek on silky dark hair, breathing in the scent that was uniquely Regina. She’d liked it even back when she wanted to strangle her. She liked it even more now that they'd found this strangely easy closeness.

“Mom! Regina! Come on!” Henry called, and they pulled apart.

**

Having Regina in her mouth was fucking incredible. She wanted to give her everything, all at once, running her greedy tongue over every angle and texture of the older woman’s sex, each more wonderful than the last--the outer edge; the inner edge; inside as far as her tongue could reach; the velvet hardness of her ready clit. This encounter was nothing short of worship, and goddamn, she never wanted to stop eating this perfect fucking pussy, so wet and hot and in this moment the most delicious flavor ever to be in her mouth. Nothing could be better than this, and Emma felt like she might come just from how good it felt to tongue her.

When she woke abruptly, feeling herself slick and throbbing and cursing the fact that she was sharing a room with her son, Emma supposed that she should not be surprised to have had an erotic dream about the queen. They’d been a regular fixture of her last year, after all, and it had probably been silly to think that figuring out who Regina was- acknowledging her desire- reuniting with Regina- would end them.

What did surprise her was what the dream was. Where there used to be hazy images of the queen’s perfect body and fleeting imagined sensations of contact, this was quite explicit. Her almost-painful level of arousal was evidence of that. But she was thrown even more off kilter because it wasn’t Regina touching her that had gotten her so hot, but dreaming of _touching_ _Regina_. Hell, she didn’t even know _how_ to go down on a girl except from having it done to her, and now she wanted it more than she could ever remember wanting anything. For Emma the point of a fantasy was to get off, and that had always meant imagining things being done to her own body.

What did it mean when you dreamed of getting someone else off?


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m incorporating events/dialogue from 3.13, though clearly I have to mess with the timeline and be selective (Regina can’t be making memory potion in her office because of what I said in Chapter 1, etc.). But it is written with the assumption that you’ve seen it. 
> 
> I’d like to point out that I totally called it that Emma would do her best to take care of Regina’s fragile emotional state, even if my methods were more direct than TPTB would ever go for.

 “You saw how quick this town was to blame me, but you- you believe I didn’t cast that curse." Regina was plainly incredulous. "It isn’t even because of your superpower. You didn't even ask me if I did it.”

Emma smirked at her and obligingly asked, “Did you do it?”

“No, of course not.” The former sheriff found the older woman’s consternation kind of adorable.

“And I didn’t ask before because it never even crossed my mind,” the blonde explained.

“Even though everything that _has_ happened has put me right next to Henry? Maybe this was some super-complicated ingenious plan,” she said, her unusual ineloquence showing her inner turmoil.

“It wasn’t. My superpower may not be perfect, but with you, Regina? I always know when you’re lying. I knew the truth when I looked you in the eye. Without asking. You didn’t do it,” she finished, more certain than she’d ever been of anything.

“Even though you know I can’t live without him,” and it wasn’t a question.

“There you go, telling the truth again,” Emma replied, giving her a small smile. The older woman just kept staring at her, her eyes becoming suspiciously moist. “What’s wrong?”

“After all of our trying to take him away from each other, I don’t know how to make sense of this. This is your chance to be his only mother, forever, and have him forget permanently that you were ever apart. Why aren’t you taking it?” The older woman looked genuinely confused.

“Yeah, well, first, I’m not really into lying to kids and telling yourself it’s for their own good. Even doing it for this one month makes me feel awful. And second, he wouldn’t be who he is without you. Even without _him_ remembering you, now that _I_ remember you I can see all these little things he does that are pure Regina.” She found herself smiling just thinking about it. Locking eyes with the older woman, she became serious again. “He’s as much your son as he is mine. We’re in this together. And god, Regina, depriving someone of their child? Shit, I wouldn’t do that to my worst enemy.”

“And I’m not?” At Emma’s unimpressed look, the queen dipped her head a little in acknowledgement. “Point taken. But what am I?”

The room contracted suddenly, feeling too small to contain a moment this explosive, this dangerous, this important. And Emma took the easy way out, shrugging, “I told you, we have a connection.”

**

The witch had seen through their ruse of being at odds immediately, of course, because Walsh was keeping her very well informed about their little picnic and intense eye-contact and lingering touches.  So when Snow White started worrying aloud about the baby in Granny’s, Zelena could not believe her luck. A little bit of the shy act, a little bit of flattery, and she had the former bandit eating out of her hand, asking for help.

“Helping Snow White with her baby. I can’t think of anything that would make me happier.” Trust gained, she went in for the kill, pausing, then going on in a conspiratorial tone, “It’s so progressive of you to support Emma’s lifestyle, by the way.”

“Excuse me?” Snow was baffled.

“Most people would think it _distasteful_ that she’s sleeping with that Mills woman, but not _you_ ,” she explained with the air of a backhanded compliment.

The former outlaw’s eyebrows attempted to crawl off her face. “She _what_?!?”

As Zelena walked away, she saw Snow grab immediately for her phone, fumbling a bit in her pregnancy awkwardness, and smiled to herself. There, that should nip this disaster of a relationship in the bud, and this was one more thing to take away from Regina. The queen would never find happiness, and Wicked would win.

**

“So,” and Emma heard Snow sigh into the phone, “I heard something today, and maybe it’s just gossip, but it makes me concerned about you spending so much time with Regina.”

Now it was Emma’s turn to sigh, in exasperation. “Damn it, Snow, are we really going to do this? I thought you guys made peace.” She started pacing outside Regina’s office, glad that she’d stepped out to take this call so as not to disrupt the queen’s attempt at a magical trace on the curse.

“We did! But _dating_ her? It’s a bit much.”

The former sheriff was startled. “Oh, that. Yeah, we aren’t really. Jesus, how is that getting around so fast? I’ve been here three days!”

Snow laughed. “You’ve forgotten what it’s like to live at the speed of small-town gossip. It could power the world if we could bottle it. So what _are_ you doing?”

“We _are_ , you know, _pretending_ to date, but it’s only because I wanted her to be able to see Henry and it’s something he understands for why we’d spend time together and he’s more likely to give her a chance if she’s important to me. She deserves time with him.” Emma knew she was saying too much, acting defensive, but she couldn’t stop talking. “Not to mention, you know damn well what happens when she can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Snow was silent for a long, long moment on the other end. “It isn’t just for her benefit, is it?” she asked, suddenly perceptive.

“No.” Caught, Emma took a deep breath. “No, it’s not.”

“Oh, honey.”

“Yeah,” the blonde acknowledged. “Yeah. Hey, I gotta go back in. We’re just about ready to try this thing.” As she hung up, Emma tried to look on the bright side. She’d just more or less come out to her mom, and Regina being a woman was the least of the issues.

**

The other thing moving at light speed at the moment was Emma and Regina’s level of closeness. Working together in Neverland had finally forged some trust, and the older woman’s fragile emotional state had the blonde’s caretaking instincts running full-throttle, and with Emma able to admit her attraction, at least to herself, they were jigsaw pieces finally turned at the right relative angle.

Since the first night, hugging each other hello and goodbye had been a firmly established feature of their interactions. Emma was even relieved of the need to lie to herself that it was just a visual they were producing for Henry’s benefit, because they did it even without him. Maybe it was because of their magic, but she could actually _feel_ Regina calm every time they folded into each other.

Tonight, as they met at the bug to begin their stakeout, she ended up with one hand cupping the back of the queen’s neck and a thumb resting on her jaw, and it was incredibly more intimate and perfect and they just stayed that way for a long moment.

It was Regina who pulled away finally, but when they got in the car the older woman gripped her hand, and the blonde felt a little smile tug at her lips.

Perhaps predictably, the queen had very little patience. “So, do we just sit here and wait?”

“‘Til the person who cast the curse makes a move on your office,” the former sheriff confirmed.

“Is this _really_ what you _do_ for a living?” Regina sounded a little appalled.

“Yeah, it’s called a stakeout.”

“And you don’t get bored?”

Emma shrugged. “I don’t know, you find ways to pass the time. Eat, talk- Mostly watch, which is what we should be doing.” She let go of Regina’s hand and picked up her cocoa, telling her brain to stop suggesting that they make out like teenagers, even if they _were_ in the world’s smallest car.

**

To take their mind off the frustration of the failed plan, they moved to a topic they felt surer of while heading back to Snow and David’s.

“So what are we going to do?” Emma asked. “We can’t just keep him out of school for a month, can we? But everyone here knows who he is and the more people he sees the more likely someone slips and reveals something traumatizing.”

“Indeed,” Regina agreed.

They were silent for several minutes, thinking.

“Hey, you could homeschool him,” Emma blurted as she parked, barreling forward with the first idea that came to mind again. It had worked the last time. “It’d be time for just the two of you, and you’re not actually mayor anymore so unless you have a lot of hobbies I don’t know about you have the time.”

“You’re deranged, dear,” Regina answered, but her tone was all affection. “I’m not qualified to teach school. Your mother is the schoolteacher, remember?”

Emma rolled her eyes. “Regina, you’re highly intelligent and well-read. I think you can manage.”

“Why thank you, Miss Swan,” the queen replied, playfully prim.

“Shut up,” Emma laughed back. Their eyes caught for a long, long moment and the blonde stopped herself just before leaning in for a kiss. “Anyway, yes, I know, harebrained, yada-yada but once again I’m all ears if you have a better suggestion.”

“I’m afraid that as bad as that suggestion is I _don’t_ have a better one.”

“It’s gonna be fine. Trust me,” the blonde insisted.

**

Regina did in fact become Henry’s teacher, and Emma spent her days investigating the new curse and coming up empty, and the three of them spent almost every evening at the former mayor’s house. They slipped smoothly into a habit of family dinners and board games and movies, and by the beginning of the second week it was like they’d never done anything else. Emma couldn’t explain just _how_ it was so easy and comfortable, but she’d been too starved for this sort of family existence for all but the last year of her life to poke at it too hard. It was enough that they were happy.

It was _because_ they were so happy that the sadness in Regina’s eyes as Henry started to head out the door that night had Emma putting a hand on the older woman’s arm—in _their spot_ —to hold her back in the living room, had her opening her mouth before she could stop herself. “How about we sleep over sometime?”

“We?”

The blonde rolled her eyes at this deliberate obtuseness. “Me and Henry, Your Majesty. If you clear out the stuff in his room that will tip him off, he can sleep there occasionally.”

Regina looked skeptical. “And you’ll, what, stay in the guest room?”

“Yes, that’s totally what people who are seriously dating do,” the former sheriff replied sarcastically. “No, Regina, I’m going to have to be in your room.”

“Very well, but you’ll have to stay on your side of the bed. And I’ll give you fair warning: I don’t sleep well with others,” the older woman huffed, all queen in that moment, except for a little softness around her eyes that made it entirely worth her prickly edges.

**

As she drove them back to her parents’ house, Emma wasn’t sure how to broach the subject. “So, uh- How would you feel about sleeping over at Regina’s sometimes, kid?”

“You know I know what that means, don’t you?” Henry asked dryly.

Emma felt a surge of panic. “What? No. We are _not_ having this conversation.”

“You _do_ remember telling me about how ‘sometimes adults have special feelings about each other,’ right? Because _I_ can’t forget it,” he grimaced. “It’s okay if you have ‘special feelings,’” he said, making air quotes. “She’s kinda smokin’ hot, mom,” he pointed out.

The blonde choked and sputtered. “No. Absolutely not.”

“What? She is! You did good!”

“Yeah but I _really_ need you to not talk about her that way.” He was going to be horrified when he got his memories back. It was certainly horrifying to her now. There was not enough therapy in the world for this.

**

Emma woke up after their first sleepover to find the two of them completely wrapped in each other. Regina’s head was on her shoulder, their legs were tangled up, both of them had their hands snaked under the other’s shirt to press against warm skin, and the queen was actually cupping her breast. The blonde’s heart clenched in her chest, and she found herself almost afraid to breathe because it might wake the older woman and break the moment, but far too soon she felt Regina tense and try to surreptitiously move that hand and knew she’d awakened.

“We can be whoever the hell we want to each other,” she repeated, in a whisper so that the older woman could pretend she hadn't heard if she wanted to.

“Indeed we can,” the queen murmured, moving her hand only to Emma’s ribs. Tightening her arm around the blonde in a half-hug, she tilted her jaw up to kiss her just below the ear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning: The next update is going to be a little while. First, because I will be traveling for work, but second because writing plot is way harder than the other stuff for me. Their dynamic and the smut is easy, little cute stuff with Henry not too hard, but a narrative arc is proverbial teethpulling.


	4. Chapter 4

Kisses became a fixture of their interaction after that, always at Regina’s instigation. Emma had given herself up fully to being whoever the queen wanted and needed and not trying to control the shape their relationship took, because it was the only way she could reconcile her dual motivations of taking care of the older woman and having not-platonic feelings for her. And that meant not pressing Regina for an explanation of this new habit either—since, unsurprisingly, none was forthcoming. She certainly wasn’t going to push when the older woman was this vulnerable.

Over the course of the next two days, the queen progressed from light brushes of her lips against the blonde’s cheek to the corner of her mouth to full on the mouth. At dinner on the second day, when Emma noted what a great job Regina was doing teaching Henry and the older woman’s eyes lit up at the praise, the kiss lingered long enough that the boy groaned.

“Come on, you guys, I’m trying to eat here.”

Pulling away with a bit of reluctance, the blonde turned to him admonishingly. “Kid, I understand that you still think girls have cooties, and I'm actually kind of thrilled about that, but when two people are- feel- have a connection,” she fumbled, “they want to express that.” Regina and Henry gave twin snorts of amusement at her lack of eloquence.

At Emma’s _Et tu, Brute_?  look, the queen relented, turning to their son and saying, “It _is_ because we care for one another, dear. Not to torture you.”

“I know,” he grumbled, “and it’s great that you make each other so happy, but, like, make out on your _own_ time. Can we make a PG-13 rule or something?”

“Very well, dear,” Regina sighed. She looked apologetic and Emma wasn’t sure which of them she was sorry toward. The blonde gave the older woman’s thigh a gentle squeeze under the table, because what Henry couldn’t see wouldn’t traumatize him.

**

The next morning Regina was draped over Emma’s back, her breath warm against the nape of her neck and both of their shirts ridden up so high they were almost off, a sizeable portion of them skin-to-skin. The blonde’s heart ached with it, so wonderful and yet so terrible to know this was all there was when she wanted so much more.

As the older woman woke, she snuggled closer for a second and kissed Emma’s shoulder before slipping from the bed to go shower, and as much as the blonde wanted to tease Regina for her cuddling ways, tell her that she seemed to sleep pretty well with others after all, she knew that would make the queen close off instantly, ruin this easy habit of touch. So she let her go.

**

“You know, Em, I thought I’d see more of you now that you’re back in town,” Ruby teased, leaning against the counter across from where the former sheriff perched on a barstool.

“Hey, don’t give me that! I see you all the time. We scour the town for some lead on this damn curse most days with your special wolfy powers.”

“Yeah, but you almost never eat here anymore, and we definitely never just hang out. What do you _do_ with yourself at night?”

“Well, you know, this savior stuff is hard work,” the blonde hedged. “So I stay in a lot. Plus, it’s hard to take Henry anywhere because people remember him but he doesn’t. So we mostly just hang out with Regina.” She tried to be casual about that last part but wasn’t quite able to pull it off, and she felt her cheeks get hot.

The waitress’s eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her head. “No way. You and Regina?” she hissed. “I heard that, but I thought it was bullshit.”

“It _is_ bullshit, Rubes. We’re not together.” After this morning’s round of “so close to perfect but so far,” she couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice.

“Oh hell, Emma. You’re in love with her, aren’t you?” Ruby spoke much too loudly, drawing attention.

“Please, tell all of Storybrooke,” the blonde growled once people had gone back to their breakfasts, grateful that the diner was almost empty this early in the day. “Yes,” she acknowledged, wondering why everyone could read her so well all of a sudden.

“You’re playing with fire, you know that.”

“Yeah.”

**

Zelena glowered into her coffee in a nearby booth. If the savior was in love, it would only be a matter of time before it was mutual, and that would be her undoing. The witch knew she had to push up the schedule on her plan. While she’d never meant to wait long, it clearly had to be now. She’d get the nightroot today. Rumple’s fine mind was secure; it was time to take Charming’s outsized courage.

**

“I want you inside me,” Regina purred, and Emma was only too glad to comply. Her fingertips slid up the inside of the queen’s leg, and she groaned at finding her so wet she’d dripped down her thigh.

“You are _so_ fucking hot,” the blonde murmured, and the older woman just bucked toward her impatiently, trying to get fingers where she needed them. Emma stroked the whole length of where Regina was exquisitely slick and hot once before pushing in slowly enough to torture them both.

“Yes,” the queen sighed, and the blonde began to thrust in a steady rhythm, adding firm circles of her thumb on the older woman’s clit and just _staring_ at how beautiful she looked while being fucked. Before long, Emma had shifted fully on top of Regina, using her thigh to add force to her hand, and the older woman hissed in satisfaction and clutched at her back and rose to meet her.

And then, just as the both of them were moving at a fever pitch, the former sheriff woke up, completely fucking desperate. Again.

The only good thing about staying with her parents was that Henry was on the couch. There was scant privacy in this apartment, but her bedroom door was it, and she had both hands down her pajama bottoms in a heartbeat. And fuck- somehow sliding two fingers into herself was not as good as her fantasy of being inside Regina, but with her other hand on her clit it was plenty for her purposes.

As she found a rhythm, everything else fell away. She wanted to come so badly, tensing, reaching for it, trying to find the right angle of hips and hands and arched back to push her over as fast as possible. She was almost there. She just needed a few more moments -

“Mom?” Fuck! “Mom, you left your phone out here and it’s ringing. It’s Regina.”

Trembling with need, she wiped one hand on her pants, opened the door the tiniest bit she could, took the phone, and shut it again as quickly as possible, falling back onto the bed in sheer defeat.

“Hey, Regina. What’s up?”

“Are you in bed?”

Given her mental state, it sounded so akin to “What are you wearing?” that Emma squeaked, “Excuse me?!”

“You sound like you just woke up, dear.”

“Oh. Yeah. Late night.” Emma tried desperately to bend her mind to the task at hand, but she could smell her own arousal on the hand holding the phone to her face and it was maddening. Damn it, Regina’s voice was so sexy and _no_ -she absolutely _could not_ masturbate while the older woman was on the phone.

“Oh, and what were you up to last night?” Damn it, Regina’s teasing, affectionate tone was _not_ helping.

“I had an inspiration. Went over your office again.”

“I went over it with a fine-toothed comb. She left no trace.”

“But you were combing for magic. I thought maybe there was physical evidence that you missed. And there was. Holly berries. We’re going out this morning to where they grow.”

“Perhaps I can take Henry for ice cream and a tour of the town today, then. I know it’s not a school day, but someone needs to _protect_ him with all this flying monkey business.”

“Goofy wordplay, Regina? I would never have thought it of you.”

“You have no idea what I’m capable of,” came the reply, half Evil Queen tones and half chuckle.  

Emma laughed. “Not that I don’t enjoy talking to you, but you generally call me for a reason. What can I do for you, Your Majesty?”

“You haven’t come by in a few days so I wanted to propose a family dinner tonight.”

“That sounds great. I’ll bring Henry over in a little while, and he can hang out with you and then we’ll have dinner tonight and stay over.”

Once she hung up, it took literally fifteen seconds for Emma to make herself come, the low, intimate tones of the queen’s voice still echoing in her memory.

**

"Mom, I know you aren't really here to track a perp," Henry said bluntly as she drove him over later that morning.

Emma started, but played if off. "Oh yeah, what do you think I do all day?

He just looked at her with that insufferably smug expression that was pure Regina. "You’ve been acting like the case brought you here and you got back together with Regina as an extra bonus, but I know she’s actually the reason."

"Oh you do." The craziest part was, he wasn't completely wrong. Saving her family and friends was absolutely something to which she had a commitment, but saving Regina had rapidly become equally important. Finding ways to dull the older woman's constant pain, to get her through until they could get Henry to remember, was far more emotionally pressing to her.

"Everything about coming here seemed fishy," Henry was explaining. “Walsh proposed and two days later you’re taking me out of school for some job in Maine. You wouldn’t take a job in Queens if it meant I’d miss school, but you set up homeschooling here like we’re going to stay a while. And then your ‘friend’ Killian, who’s really sketchy, and Mary Margaret's dumb story about jail, all of it.”

“I’m sorry, kid, I know you liked Walsh.”

“I liked how happy he made you. Plus, it might be nice having more than two place settings during the holidays. But you know, the only thing that is really, really real about this whole thing is how you and Regina look at each other. Whyever it was you broke up in the first place and I never met her before- don't mess this up, Mom."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you keeping score at home, Things I Called Part II: the “Henry thinks coming to Storybrooke is at least partially about not marrying Walsh” conversation roughly tracks the explanation I had Emma give in Ch 2; the little flicker of hurt on Regina’s face with the reveal of the near-engagement was in Ch 1.
> 
> We may be looking at weekly updates because I continue to get stuck on plot and apparently need to have the inspiration of rewriting/fixing the episodes.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: mentions of suicidal thoughts.
> 
> I’ve had to add a few days into the timeline between when the new curse was enacted and when Hook showed up to find Emma just to make stuff fit. But then, in 3x12 Hook said he made the potion and in 3x13 he said it came with the bird to his ship, so I guess I’m doing ok with continuity by comparison to TPTB.

The next morning, Emma woke up spooning Regina, and she would have felt guilty for being the sleep-snuggling aggressor except that the queen’s hand was tucked behind her back, snaked between them into the blonde’s pajama bottoms and resting at the juncture of her thighs.

“Mm,” the queen hummed sleepily as she awakened. “Sorry,” she added, retrieving her hand.

Emma took a deep breath. “I didn’t think I’d ever be saying this, but are we gonna talk about this?”

“About what, dear?” Regina looked over her shoulder.

“Us. The touching. The kissing. What are we doing?”

“We’re pretending to be romantically involved. It was your idea.” The older woman’s voice took on a sharp edge and she began to pull away.

“No, stop,” Emma said calmly, holding her, not letting her retreat. “It isn’t _just_ that. You know that, right?” She pulled at the older woman’s shoulder to make her turn and face her and took a deep breath, finally going to lay herself out there. “I keep saying we have a connection, and I think you deserve to know what I mean by that.”

She stopped, thinking about how the hell to start. One thing was for sure: lying down in bed together was way too intimate for this conversation. “Um, I’m gonna sit up for this.” The queen joined her, and soon they were both sitting cross-legged on the bed facing each other, Regina smoothing her silky gray pajamas to fall precisely right in a way that might have seemed indifferent if Emma didn’t know her well enough to see it as the nerves it was.

“For the past year a woman haunted my dreams,” the blonde began finally, after gulping down some water from the glass on the nightstand and realizing she was stalling. “And I didn’t know who she was until I got my memories back. It was you, Regina. Having to leave because of Pan’s curse made me see that you’re important to me, and not just because of Henry.  And-” here was the really scary part. “I’ve realized I’m also attracted to you. And I think you might feel something for me too.”

“And if I did?”

The blonde smiled ruefully, because she had, of course, fallen for the only person on the _planet_ more emotionally closed off than she was. “Then I would say that we should stop pretending.”

A little flicker of fear raced across Regina’s face, almost too fast to see. “What?”

“We should stop pretending and _be_ romantically involved. Actually date.”

Regina took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. “I’m _intrigued_ by that idea.”

“But?” Emma could hear it in her tone and felt dread wash over her.

“I’m not sure I should be romantically involved with _anyone_.” Regina shifted back against the headboard and pulled her knees into her chest protectively. “When I lost Henry, I felt that there was no reason to go on.” Seeing Emma’s wide eyes, she hastened to clarify, “Not that. At least, I didn’t think about- _that_ \- more than fleetingly. But even the mystery of this new curse couldn’t really occupy my attention. The pain was constant, and I was quite seriously considering brewing another sleeping curse, to slip into an eternal middle where I didn’t have to live without Henry until maybe one day he’d come and wake me. He would want me to have hope, and that was all the hope I could manage. I couldn’t keep walking around knowing that I’d never see him, that he didn’t even remember who I am.” She was silent for a long moment.

“What stopped you?” the blonde prodded gently.

“When I realized that because I'd cast the spell I could undo it with memory potion, and the Charmings and I realized we could send it to you with Hook, I- you- you _were_ the hope. Perhaps The _Savior_ could save me from the hell I was enduring while she was _saving_ us all." A little sarcasm had crept into her tone, as it always did when discussing Emma's predestined role, but it dropped out again as she went on, "And that was just enough to keep me hanging on. Then you arrived on my doorstep and took me into your arms and promised me you’d bring me back together with Henry-"

She paused for a long, long moment, but the blonde saw that she was near her breaking point and knew better than to push this time. "I can’t remember feeling that safe and warm and cared for in quite some time,” the older woman finished eventually, then said quickly, “I don’t know what it means-”

 “You don’t have to,” Emma murmured, feeling like she’d just won the lottery even with this much of a confession.

The queen looked at her imperiously for interrupting. “I think I would like to find out,” she finished. “However, I have to warn you that my heart is- shredded right now without Henry. I don’t know what I can offer you.”

“Hey, I know everything in the Enchanted Forest is a one-way ticket to a marriage proposal, but we have more options in here in America. We’ll just do what we’ve been doing without pretending we don’t mean it, right?”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Regina said dryly, and Emma knew she had reached the end of the older woman’s capacity for emotional honesty.

“Can I kiss you?” The blonde asked, unwilling to initiate for the first time without explicit permission.

“I don’t know, dear, _can_ you?”

 It was only because she knew how raw the queen was that Emma didn’t roll her eyes. “ _May_ I kiss you?”

“There’s my good girl,” Regina purred, and Emma felt desire race through her. “Yes, you may.”

Emma moved closer, kneeling beside where Regina’s knees were still protectively tight against her chest, and cupped the older woman’s face in her hands. She just looked at her for a long moment, drinking in that this was really happening, before pressing their lips together.

And fuck- this was magical, and her entirely involuntary smile broke the kiss. But she brought their mouths together again, brushing against Regina’s perfect mouth and holding the contact, then nipping at her lower lip and doing it again. Soon the queen hummed a little low in her throat and relaxed her posture. The blonde took this as a cue to brush her tongue across her lips, and the former mayor readily intensified the kiss. They sank into it for long moments, slow and deep and intimate, as if they were trying to memorize each other’s mouths.

“Mom! Regina!”

“Fuck,” Emma muttered, resting her forehead against the queen’s.

“Come on you guys, wake up! You’re not going to get out of taking me horseback riding that easy!”

“This is your doing,” Regina complained.

“ _My_ doing? You’re the horse expert. I definitely have a ‘no animals bigger than me’ policy.”

“You wanted to show him that Storybrooke has interesting things to do, dear.” The queen kissed the blonde lightly once more, then said, “Time to face the music.”

**

“Jeez Mom, if your expression was any gooier someone would have to eat it for dessert,” Henry teased, sidling his mount up to her with surprising skill given that he couldn’t remember his previous riding lessons. Muscle memory, Emma supposed.  
  
Perhaps because she was entirely unenthusiastic about being on a horse, being in the beginners' class, and being unable to watch Regina being gorgeous and talented doing her fancy jumping, Emma’s reply was a little sharper than usual. “Son, I’m gonna point something out to you. Someday, you’re going to start dating. And when that happens you _might_ get the standard parental embarrassment package or you might get the _deluxe_ model. It’s entirely up to you. I’m going to tell you right now, though, that Regina holds a grudge like nobody’s business.”  
  
He winced. “Ouch. Okay, point taken. It’s just a way for me to feel included in how happy you are, you know?” He turned her own patented puppy dog eyes up at her. He did mean it, her superpower told her, but the delivery was all calculation. He really was a manipulative little shit when he had a mind to be. Fortunately both she and Regina loved him completely.

**

When Walsh heard Zelena start laughing and laughing, he knew it boded ill for someone, and hoped fervently that it wasn’t him.

He winced as she shouted his name, but rushed to attend her.

 “My dear Walsh, I forgive you for all your failures, though they are manifold.” She paused and glared at him, then smiled again in evil joy. “I didn’t need to keep Emma Swan away. I didn’t need to keep her from falling in love with Regina. I’ve been going about this all wrong! That’s the heart I need, the one strong enough, true enough, giving enough to love _Regina._ ” She spat the name. “Bring her to me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up: In the next couple of chapters it’s gonna get really smutty and then it’s gonna get really dark. And then smutty again later!


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning, increasingly desperate to make some progress on the curse and for lack of any better leads, they left Henry and an ever more pregnancy-immobilized Mary Margaret in each other’s care and came to the town line to see if Regina could pick up on anything magical or maybe they could find out where those damn flying monkeys came from. They followed the arc of the line from a safe distance, Emma and David looking for physical traces, Regina attuning herself to the traces of power at work, and Hook keeping watch for any unwelcome visitors from above.

It was shaping up to be yet another exercise in futility until, sometime around the second hour, the pirate shouted “We’re under attack!”

There were half a dozen of the flying monkeys, more than they’d ever seen at one time, approaching from every angle. Emma pulled her gun as she saw one swooping toward her and shot at it, careful to go for the wing in case it was someone they knew. Her aim was true, and it screeched and broke off, letting her edge back toward the others. She wondered how they'd gotten separated.  
  
Regina was gradually getting the hang of how to aim for their particular flight pattern, and the monkeys' cries soon took on a pained tone as several of her fireballs connected. Before long they clearly decided they'd had enough.

“Swan, I’d say they were after _you_ ,” Killian pointed out once they were sure they’d seen the last of them for now.

“Damn it, Hook, if this is another dating a monkey joke I am so fucking done with you.”

“As loath as I am to agree with the pirate, or be reminded of your previous dalliances with simians,” Regina shuddered delicately, “I’d have to say he’s right.”

“They were trying to separate you from us. It’s a basic trick for hunting in packs,” David agreed. 

“Fine,” Emma growled. “Suppose you’re right. What does it matter?”

“If they want to capture you, we probably should not have you out wandering around near where we _know_ their lair is, so- Go home.” her father explained.

“No. Absolutely not.”

“Swan-” Hook began.

“Nuh-uh. He can. She can,” she said, tipping her head at each of them in turn, “But I’m not taking that shit from you.” The pirate subsided.

“Emma, will you just stay in the house?” David pleaded. “Just give it a try while we scout around here today. If she wants you, it’s for a reason, and the best thing we can do is to thwart her.”

“No, that’s ridiculous! I’m _not_ going to hide out. I’m the savior! I’m the sheriff! I’m a grown woman, for god’s sake!”

“Regina, back me up here,” Charming asked.

“He’s right, dear.”

“I miss the time when you guys were enemies,” Emma muttered. Seeing their unyielding expressions, she relented. “Alright, alright, Henry’s been talking about a _Lord of the Rings_ marathon. That should take us well into tonight. Good enough for you?” Her voice dripped sarcasm in a way that rivaled Regina at her snarkiest.

“Great. Regina, if you could protect-” He blanched a little at his daughter’s murderous expression, and quickly clarified “assist, _assist_ Emma’s perfectly capable protecting of herself.” Emma’s eyes stayed narrowed, but she was no longer inclined to blow up at him. “Hook and I will keep looking and bring out the dwarves and the Merry Men and Emma I swear I’ll tell you everything we find,” David said, trying to make it just a little easier.

The savior just growled at him, then turned to Regina. “We’re doing this at your house. Your TV is bigger.” She stalked off toward her bug.

**

As they were having lunch after the first film, a real lunch at Regina’s insistence and not the pizza that Emma wanted to order, the blonde noticed their son looking at the queen with an unreadable expression on his face.

“Regina,” he said finally, “I know I can’t replace your son, but if you want to do mom stuff with me I’d be okay with that.”

“Kid, this better not be you bucking for two allowances,” Emma snarled, still irritated from this morning. At the older woman’s quelling look, she subsided.

“What did you have in mind, dear?” Regina asked, looking almost afraid to hope.

“I don’t know, I guess you already cook for me-” He winced. “Okay, that came out wrong.” Emma was sympathetic, but a tiny part of her thought this was payback for all the times he’d given her shit. “I mean, I like spending time with you. We could go riding together sometime, maybe, just you and me?” He exhaled.  “I don’t know. You tell it like it is, like my mom does. I like that. I like you. I’m just glad to have you around, I guess?” And it was disjointed and awkward, but the blonde figured Regina was used to that by now from dealing with Emma herself, and if the soft look on the queen’s face was any indication it was just right.

**

During one of the endless scenes of hobbits wandering around Mordor, Henry blurted, “I knew this reminded me of someone! It’s you two!”

“If you are making gay jokes, Henry, so help me you will never see a video game again as long as you live.” Emma’s bad mood was finally starting to lift now that she had her head resting in Regina’s lap, but it wasn’t gone yet.

“No, not like that!” he protested. “They really love each other and Sam takes care of Frodo and it’s _nice_. Like you guys are nice even though I make fun of you.” Clearly he’d taken Emma’s admonishment yesterday to heart, and a surge of fondness for him pushed away the last of her irritation at the situation.

“Thank you, dear,” Regina said magnanimously.

Emma looked up at her and teased, “Regina, you know I’ll carry you up a flaming mountain to save the world any time, right?”

“Yes, dear,” the older woman chuckled.

Sitting up a little to look at Henry, the blonde asked, “Then who are you, Gollum?”

“Hey!”

**

Tearing up a little as Frodo got on the elves’ boat, Emma was glad nobody was awake to see her. Henry’s head was on her left shoulder and Regina was tucked under her right arm, head on her chest. Their arms were touching where they crossed her midsection. And this was perfect, surrounded by the two people she loved most in the world, warm and safe together even if only for a moment.

She felt Regina stir slightly, then a nuzzle and a kiss to her neck.

“Hey, you,” she murmured adoringly. “Bedtime?”

Regina just hummed in agreement and kissed her again.

**

Walsh saw the lights go out throughout the house, leaving one burning low in the bedroom, and knew there’d be no further opportunity to capture the savior today.

On one hand, he didn’t want to think about Emma being with someone else—he had actually liked her, and she’d been a decent lay, if a bit absentminded. On the other, his eight months in this world had introduced him to the wonders of lesbian pornography, and Regina was as fine a female as Emma and so perhaps he _did_ want to think about it.

Shaking himself off, he realized that his time would be better spent reporting back to Zelena. It was hard to fantasize when one was dead.

**

“The kid’s out cold,” Emma said, closing and locking Regina’s bedroom door behind her as she entered. Seeing the tension radiating from every line of the older woman’s body, she held up her hands almost instinctively, hastening to calm her. “Okay, yes, we _are_ in a bedroom with the door locked and our son is asleep, but it doesn’t mean we have to have sex immediately. We can start slow. We don’t have to start at all. We can just sleep like we always have,” she insisted, though she wondered a little why someone as effortlessly sexual as the queen was so skittish as she walked over to where the older woman stood in the bathroom doorway, having just taken her makeup off for bed. God, she was gorgeous like this, just Regina. But then, she was gorgeous like everything.

Relief warred with snarkiness on the older woman’s face. “If we were to start slow, what do you propose?”

“Making out.” The blonde grinned. “It’s a time-honored tradition and not just for teenagers. Kiss me.”

“I always kiss you,” the queen complained dryly, but she stepped closer.

“Regina,” Emma admonished, and then the older woman’s mouth met hers. The blonde soon had one hand tangled in Regina’s hair and the other at the small of her back, pulling them together, and they fit perfectly.

When they broke apart to gasp for more air, the queen interspersed her deep breaths with trailing kisses down the blonde’s chin, over her jaw, down to her throat. “God,” Emma groaned, because this felt fucking amazing. But she needed so much more, guiding the older woman carefully toward the bed with the few brain cells not occupied with processing the exquisite sensations Regina was providing.  

Pressing the queen down onto the mattress, the blonde climbed on top, straddling her thighs, and immediately leaned down to get her mouth on her neck, kissing, then nipping, then sucking lightly at her pulse point, drinking in the older woman’s little hums and groans of pleasure.

This was just supposed to be making out, but their desire spiraled quickly and their hips began rocking involuntarily, disjointedly, and as Emma shifted her weight to get a better angle for her kissing one leg fell between Regina’s, pressing tight against her. The queen moaned and rolled her hips, pressing into the blonde the same way.

“Oh!” Emma exclaimed, startled. At the worried expression on the older woman’s face, she hurried to clarify, “No, no, it’s good. I mean, it _should_ have occurred to me that thighs would be good for that, but, you know, you _don’t_ with guys and-” she got quieter, embarrassed to admit, “I've never been with a woman.”

“Nor I. Not really,” Regina confessed.

That was a strange way to put it. “Not really, but fakely?”

“When your wardrobe is comprised primarily of leather and cleavage, sometimes your maidservant looks at you like she wants to eat you for dinner.” The queen smirked. “And sometimes you let her.” She paused, serious again. “But I haven't like this. I haven’t really ever- like this- with anyone.”

“With feelings,” Emma interpreted.

“Indeed,” and there was an incredible weight of meaning in that simple acknowledgement.

The blonde hesitated to ask the question, to even speak his name. “But Daniel-”

“My mother raised me to be a proper young lady,” the queen replied, deeply bitter. “If only I had rebelled a little sooner-” she trailed off. “No, we never.”

Emma felt like her chest would crack open with how much she felt in this moment—protectiveness, and rage at Cora, and awe that she was going to get to give this to Regina, and pure adoration, and all she could do was just kiss her and press all her awe and adoration and desire into the queen’s mouth with her tongue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Confession: I don’t know what women who’ve only had sex with men know about having sex with women, so I had to wing it here in the make-out scene and in Chapter 7-8’s actual sex. Apologies for any errors.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In classic angstbot style, a chapter in which SwanQueen do nothing but fuck and I really EARN the explicit rating I’ve been using since Chapter 1. And it verges on unbearably sweet, but that just might be what SQ fandom needs right now, eh?

They had, in fact, not had sex that first night but had kissed until their lips were bruised and nearly memorized the contours of each other’s body with undemanding hands and, okay, yes, left some suspicious bruises Regina had to magic away the next morning. It was a pleasantly new experience for both of them just learning one another, getting accustomed to the idea of being _this_ to each other.

But, after an uneventful day together as a family, punctuated only by periodic updates from David on the search for the monkeys’ lair, tonight was going to be the night. Emma found herself hoping fervently that knowing about sex in general and what her own body liked would be enough to give Regina a perfect experience, the weight of the older woman’s first time mixing sex and intimacy far greater than the fact of being each other’s first woman.

By unspoken agreement they skipped the clichéd candles and rose petals and Boyz II Men, but they did undress each other slowly, all kisses and warm hands brushing over newly-revealed skin—and soon, nips and hungry digging in of teeth on that newly-revealed skin as their desire ramped up. Crawling onto the bed together, they pressed against each other skin-to-skin for the first time, lying side-by-side but so tangled in each other that the casual observer would not be able to sort them into bodies, needing to be close-closer-closest.

After long minutes of this, Regina pushed Emma onto her back and straddled her hips, letting her eyes linger over the blonde’s form appreciatively before confessing, “I always thought you had superb breasts.”

Emma blushed, but pointed out, “Like you don’t?”

“Yours are larger,” the older woman insisted, cupping them both in her hands.

The blonde struggled to concentrate. “But yours are so perky and amazing in your shirts and-” she trailed off into a groan. “Fuck, I want your nipples in my mouth.”

“Wait your turn,” the queen commanded. She licked a slow stripe across one breast and then the other, then blew cool air across each nipple, watching with eager eyes as they became perfectly erect, and then oh god- her mouth was so hot and hungry and perfect and all the blonde could do was moan and cup the back of her head in an unspoken plea to keep going. Regina sucked and bit at one nipple and then the other, back and forth until Emma felt quite sure she was going to go out of her mind with how good this was.

The queen started to kiss down her stomach, then looked up, uncertain, and Emma’s heart clenched in her chest. Tucking her fingers under the older woman’s chin, she murmured, “Hey, c’mere. There’s no rush.” She slid back a bit and sat up carefully, coaxing Regina to sit up with her. “You don’t have to do anything you’re not ready for,” she said softly.

At that, the older woman looked at her with intense adoration before kissing her fiercely and straddling her thighs again. Relieved that this had been the right thing to say, Emma hummed happily into the queen’s mouth, then slid her hands slowly up the older woman’s sides to cup her perfect breasts. Regina’s little pleased sound encouraged her, and she brushed her fingers lightly across her nipples for a moment, then started rolling them gently between eager fingers. When the queen broke their kiss and groaned, the blonde leaned down to suck one nipple into her mouth, loving the feel of taut flesh against tongue-palate-teeth. The sound pulled from Regina’s throat at this sensation was even better, and Emma groaned back, switching to lavish attention on the other breast.

The blonde lost herself in touching the older woman for long moments, but when Regina’s hips started bucking against thin air _want_ hit the former sheriff hard and she murmured, “Closer. I need you closer.”

Emma moved her mouth up to the queen’s neck as the older woman shifted to actually sit in her lap and the angle changed. Then strong, smooth legs wrapped around her waist and oh- there she was, so fucking wet against Emma’s stomach, perfectly, exactly what she had wanted all this time, that all she could do was drop her hands to Regina’s perfect ass and rock them together for long moments, loving the feeling of hot slickness against her lower abs.

“Don’t tease me,” the queen insisted, and Emma kissed her apologetically as she slid one hand over the older woman’s hip and up between them where they both wanted it. Cocking her wrist to make the position work, she began to rub steady circles against the older woman’s clit, and the shudder that went through Regina’s body in response was such a perfect, amazing gift.

Bringing up her other hand to pull at the queen’s nipples again, she was overwhelmed by her own luck to be here with this flawless woman, so close, so intimate. The world contracted to this contact, Regina’s little pleasure sounds and the warmth of their mingled breath and this was heavenly and nothing could be better except-

“I want to be inside you,” Emma breathed.

“Yes,” the older woman hissed, tilting her pelvis to let the blonde’s fingers find their way home. And fuck- the silky slickness of Regina, muscles gripping to pull her deeper, keep her inside, was so hot she thought she might combust. Emma started pushing into the queen, slow and steady, thumb almost aimless against her clit because she was in no hurry to make her come. Just feeling her like this was so good, and their eyes locked for long minutes.

But soon the older woman needed more, pulling up onto her knees again to ride Emma’s hand, and the blonde obligingly thrust harder. When Regina threw her head back, losing herself in the sensation, the only thing the former sheriff could think was “You’re so fucking beautiful.”

The queen claimed her mouth again possessively at that, kissing her hard and deep and never stopping the motion of her hips. When the blonde brought her other hand between them to rub circles on the older woman’s clit, letting her thrust harder with the fingers tucked inside, Regina shuddered out of their kiss, pleading, “Fuck me, Emma, please, don’t stop.”

Emma did, giving her everything she had, wanting the older woman’s pleasure so much it almost hurt.

And Regina was gorgeous and she was breathy and she was perfect and she was coming, gripping Emma tightly with every muscle.

The blonde coaxed the older woman through her aftershocks, pulling her hands away finally to run them over the queen’s flawless skin, knees and hips and back and shoulders, unable to stop smiling as she drank in the sight of her, flushed and sweaty and well-fucked. And, as their eyes met, hungry.

“Lie down,” the older woman commanded, pushing at Emma’s shoulders without any trace of her previous uncertainty. Fuck- the blonde didn’t think that Regina’s voice could _get_ any sexier, but low and rough with desire like this it _was_ and it made her want to do exactly as she was told.

Bright brown eyes never left hers as the older woman crawled down her body and coaxed her thighs apart, settling between them. Emma forgot to breathe in anticipation, and then Regina made the first slow swipe of her tongue up the length of the blonde’s sex, and it was so good she didn’t even care that the queen smirked a little at the moan it pulled from her throat. Then she was licking in earnest, staring up at her, and god, how was she so good at this? The blonde’s eyes fluttered shut at how incredible Regina’s mouth felt on her, giving herself up to the waves of sensation for long moments.

“Do you want my fingers?” the older woman asked. Emma’s eyes found her again, and her lips were so shiny and her eyes were so full of desire and all the blonde could do was say “Fuck, yes” and tangle her fingers in dark hair to pull that amazing mouth back to her pussy. And Regina was inside her, and Regina was making hungry little noises as she tongued her and this was searingly good.

After long moments of this, Emma heard herself moan, “More.”

“More?” the queen asked.

“Three fingers,” the blonde explained.

Regina groaned at that, but pulled out and pushed back in with three and all Emma could do was hiss, “Yes!”

The stretch of it was so good, and the older woman’s tongue was so relentless, and it was perfect perfect perfect and then she was arching into an orgasm that seemed to explode along every nerve at once.

As soon as she had motor control again, she cupped the queen’s face in both hands and pulled her up for more deep kisses, moaning a little at the taste of herself on her mouth. They kissed for a few minutes, easy and intimate, sinking into the closeness all over again.

But soon, a slight shift of position had Regina’s thigh tucking between Emma’s and fuck- there she was again, slick and hot against the blonde’s hip. The former sheriff was rolling them over before she could even breathe because she had to get the queen in her mouth. Crawling down the older woman's body, she settled between her thighs and just _looked_ for a long, long moment at her gorgeous cunt, open and wet and ready and  _hers_ , before her need to taste her became too strong. They both moaned at the first contact.

Emma’s mouth kept trying to curve into a smile, making it hard to actually tongue the queen. She felt overwhelmed with the joy of having Regina in her mouth, every bit as good as she dreamed, and she was torn between taking it slow, making it last, and how much she wanted to make the older woman come again. She settled on long, slow strokes, down to her opening and up to her clit, flicking a little as she reversed the direction, her tongue soft, but direct. The queen was so wet and so hot and goddamn she never wanted to stop eating this perfect fucking pussy.

As she traced questioning fingers against Regina's opening, the older woman just pushed toward her. Slipping in, she fell in love with being inside this perfect goddess all over again. The blonde fucked the older woman steadily for a few moments, then curled her fingers against her g-spot.

 “Oh my god,” Regina gasped.

Emma met her eyes, concerned. “Should I stop?”

“Don’t you dare!” she insisted. “It’s incredible, what are you _doing_?”

The blonde smiled. “That, baby, is your g-spot,” she said, resuming pulling her fingers against it and swirling her tongue on Regina’s clit, pleased that she enjoyed this as much as Emma herself did. The queen’s hips were bucking so much now that the savior had to wrap an arm around one thigh to hold her anything resembling steady.

God, Regina was so fucking beautiful like this, mewling, needy, wrecked, and the blonde decided that if she got her nose broken because she made this woman come too hard she’d be totally okay with that.

The older woman was biting down on her own wrist now to try to stay quiet, and the blonde pulled her mouth away long enough to growl, “As soon as we can, we’re doing this with an empty house so I can hear you scream.”

Regina just moaned in response, and Emma amped up her caresses, stroking firmly on her spot and sucking at her clit now, relentless in her drive to make her feel good-more-amazing.

And when she came, her body snapping into an electric arc, her back clear off the bed, it was the most beautiful, perfect thing Emma had ever- fucking- seen.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> READ THE TAGS. No, really, check them. I’ll wait. Back? Ok. This chapter leads with a little more fucking, but brace yourselves for seriously bad shit after that. 
> 
> Set between 3x14 and 3x15.

Regina was truly gorgeous when she’d just come, Emma decided as she crawled back up her body to lay beside her, propping herself up on one elbow so that she could just drink her in, all heavy eyelids and heavy breath.

“I want to try something,” the older woman murmured after several minutes of recovery, and when she met the blonde’s eyes she was all queen, shoving Emma over onto her back. Rising to her knees, she settled between the blonde’s legs, looking her up and down speculatively. “How flexible are you?”

“Fairly, I’d say, why-” but Regina was already pushing Emma’s knees back to her shoulders and settling their hips together and fuck- suddenly they were clit to clit.

“Oh my god,” was all the blonde could say.

“Mm, such a good girl,” Regina hummed and began rolling her hips.

They were so slick together and god, what were the odds that they would fit exactly right like this? The jolts of sensation that rushed through Emma every time the queen pushed against her were almost unbearably good. But watching the ecstasy on the older woman’s face made it impossibly better.

“I love the way you fuck me,” the blonde found herself moaning.

Regina just smirked at her in reply for a moment before her face involuntarily smoothed out in pleasure again. The queen’s hips never stopped moving, and this was utterly exquisite. Feeling the flexing of the older woman’s leg muscles against her hips and watching her abs contract with the effort of the position and hearing the little grunt-groans of exertion-pleasure low in her throat had Emma feeling like she was going to lose her mind from the sheer hotness of it all.

The blonde wanted to stay on this perfect white-hot edge forever, but soon the queen’s motions became short and sharp as she approached orgasm, and Emma was right with her, and then watching Regina come pushed the savior over the edge too.

The older woman collapsed beside her, and Emma gratefully unbent herself, but that was all either of them could manage. It was many long minutes before they recovered from the incredible intensity.

Finally struggling out of her post-orgasm daze, Emma had a burning question. “How did you learn that-” she struggled to name it, “mounting me thing?”

“Although I was _inexperienced_ with women, I had something of a-” the older woman paused, as if searching for the word.

“Curiosity?” the blonde volunteered.

“Not curiosity. Desire,” the queen corrected. “Sex between women interested me, so I did some research over the years.”

“Research?”

“Internet pornography, dear.” Emma was _so_ exhausted, but the hotness of Regina’s causal admission of watching porn was almost enough to want to go again. “I could ask you the same question about that g-spot stimulation,” the older woman went on. “It- it felt like- like you were stroking my clitoris from the inside.”

Emma smiled. “Apparently it’s not common knowledge in the Enchanted Forest, but here a lot of people know that’s something you can do with women. Not everybody knows and it doesn’t work on everybody, but- I’m glad you like it too.”

“Mm, I do,” Regina murmured, and Emma just smiled at how adorably sleepy she looked and moved to cuddle up against her, pulling the covers up over them from where they’d gotten bunched down at the bottom of the bed over the course of the evening’s vigorous activities. The queen gestured out the light.

**

Waking early the next morning, Emma just watched Regina sleep for several minutes, loving how peaceful and happy she looked, the ache that had perpetually edged her every expression since losing Henry held in abeyance for now. The blonde felt giddy and wanted nothing more than to roll around in bed with the queen all day. However, there was their son to consider, so she went with the next best thing and decided to make the older woman breakfast, pulling on some sweats and a t-shirt from the dresser drawer that she suddenly realized had become hers.

“Roses. I need roses,” she muttered to herself after assessing the contents of the former mayor’s impeccably organized kitchen. Game of Thorns wasn’t far; she could definitely make it back before anyone was the wiser, she decided, tying on the ratty old sneakers of hers that had somehow migrated into Regina’s downstairs hall closet.

It was perhaps because she was so goofily enamored and replaying last night’s amazing sex in her head as she took off down the block with a decided spring in her step that Emma never saw the shadow bearing down on her until it was too late.

**

When the bag over her head was removed, Emma found herself in a small room lit dimly by a single bulb, face to face with a woman she assumed must be the Wicked Witch.

“What do you want?” the savior spat, mustering all the courage she could dredge up while immobilized by a surprisingly strong monkey on either side.

“Merely the same thing you so easily gave my sister. Your heart,” the witch said, plunging her hand into the blonde’s chest.

“Cora tried that already,” Emma said, voice tight with pain, because even if the witch couldn’t actually _take_ her heart her chest didn’t exactly have a hand worth of extra space in it. And indeed, the taller woman’s fist caught when she tried to pull it out, just as the Queen of Hearts’s had. This did not stop the witch from yanking at it for long moments, however, and the blonde grit her teeth to not give her the satisfaction of crying out.

“Blast!” the witch growled, releasing her grip finally. “This isn’t over. I’ll get it yet, my pretty. Bind her,” she said to her lackeys, and Emma found herself being strung up by the wrists with chains that barely let her feet touch.

Emma listened hard when the light went out for anything she might be able to use, determining that the witch must be climbing some kind of wooden steps. Then, left alone in the dark, she realized what she had heard. Was the witch really Regina’s sister?

**

The former sheriff had no idea how long she had been half-standing, half-hanging in the dark when the single bulb clicked on again, blinding her.

“Rumpel, get me her heart,” the witch said, her tone almost flirtatious in a way that turned Emma’s stomach. As the blonde’s eyes reluctantly agreed to focus again, she could see a madness in Rumpelstiltskin’s eyes that chilled her even more than dealing with the ruthless man usually did.

She tried to reason with him anyway. “Mr. Gold, clearly she’s done something awful to you, but you don’t have to do this.”

“Oh but he does, love.” The witch let the dagger glint in the weak light, and Emma’s tiny bit of hope vanished.

His hand slipped into her chest as easily as anyone else’s, his fingers closed around her heart, and he pulled steadily. But for all of the Dark One’s magic, he could no more take her heart than anyone else who had tried. Emma smiled a little to herself as they left her in the dark, but the receding sound of the witch ranting in fury had her heart falling into her boots. This was going to get worse before it got better.

**

“Perhaps if we lower your natural defenses,” the witch began, and Emma had just enough time to shut her eyes before the light washed over her. It was marginally less painful through closed lids. “Walsh!”

Emma’s eyes opened involuntarily, and though they watered a little in the abrupt brightness she could see well enough to make out the winged monkey skulking into the circle of light. She gulped.

“Human form, Walsh,” the witch commanded.

Watching him take on the entirely too familiar shape of the man she’d dated for eight months, Emma felt sick. She _had_ actually loved him, even though that feeling had been interspersed with fantasies about Regina, and when, as usual, he wasn’t who he said he was it _had_ actually hurt.

“Hello Emma,” he said in a tone that was entirely too intimate. “Did you miss me?”

“Can’t say that I did,” she growled.

“I’ll leave you to it, Walsh,” the witch said. Just before she moved completely out of the circle of light, she added, “Do remember the price of failing me.”

“You heard the lady. I’ve got work to do,” the monkey-man noted, then punched Emma hard in the midsection, driving the air from her lungs.

“You’re disgusting,” the blonde gasped, her righteous anger getting the better of her discretion.

“You didn’t think I was so disgusting when I was fucking you,” he taunted.

“But even then you weren’t the one I _wanted_ to be fucking me, Walsh. It always felt a little wrong and I should have listened to my gut,” she growled. That wasn’t exactly true, but her pride was stung and she was entirely revolted by the memory of him knowing what she knew now.

He hit her again. “You had no complaints when I was inside you.”

“I do now. I’ve had enough with this obsession with being inside me. The witch’s hand, Rumple’s hand, whatever sick sexual fantasy you’re building up to. Let me tell you one thing. The only person who’s welcome inside me is Regina.” When his face contorted with rage, she realized she’d overplayed her hand. Her world exploded into pain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I acknowledge that I may be evil for stopping there. But Chapter 9 in two days. Just two days!
> 
> Expressions of sexuality being swiftly punished is of course the oldest trick in the fairy tale book, but that’s not why I did it.
> 
> Regina’s “Not curiosity. Desire.” is a line from Star Trek: Voyager, but more proximately comes from an old but good Janeway/Seven story by Boadicea from 1998. Yes, I am a dinosaur in fandom years.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still not to 3x15 yet.

At some point Emma must have lost consciousness, because the next thing she knew the light was clicking on again. A quick assessment of her body told her that Walsh had, in fact, not sexually assaulted her, just the regular kind.

But that was plenty. The blonde definitely had some broken ribs and her mouth tasted of blood and her eyes were nearly swollen shut. But she could, just barely, make out something glinting in the witch’s hand.

“You tried that already,” the savior croaked, discovering that her voice was raw, she assumed from screaming.

“This is a different magical dagger, love,” she explained, before plunging it into Emma’s chest.

Emma had been knifed a few times, usually by bail-jumpers, though there had been one woman very incensed over an ice cream mishap during her time in Phoenix. But before it had always been a glancing blow. Magic or not, this was several inches of sharp metal jammed directly into her chest, and she could not help crying out. The witch tried cutting at several different angles to get at the blonde’s heart, each more painful than the last, then hissed in disgust, withdrew the knife, and stormed out.

Just before the light went out, Emma peered down and felt vaguely cheated that she didn’t have even a single drop of blood to show for the agony she’d just endured.

**

“I do believe a little more subtlety is in order,” the witch said to preface her latest attempt. Emma wondered briefly why the taller woman felt the need to chat about her strategy, then felt her heart pulled, like it was trying to exit her body. The savior could see a bit better now after however much time had passed, and could make out a ball of green smoke in the taller woman’s hand.

The blonde understood that this was some kind of summoning spell, wishing she and Regina had gotten around to more magic lessons after Neverland so she’d have some hope of fighting back. At that thought, the smoke, which had been flickering in and out of looking heart-shaped, dissipated.

“What did you do?” the witch demanded.

Running back through her last few moments, Emma realized that it had been the thought of Regina. She smiled as best she could, lip split and jaw bruised from her beating however long ago it had been. “Love is strength,” she growled.

The witch narrowed her eyes at that, then flicked her wrist again. This time, keeping the queen firmly in her mind, the blonde didn’t feel a thing, and the witch shrieked in rage.

**

The next time the light clicked on, Emma wondered what fresh hell the witch had in store, only to see it reflecting in wonderfully familiar bright brown eyes. “You look awful, dear,” Regina murmured, and Emma was a little embarrassed that her laugh came out more like a sob. The older woman started to wrap her arms around her.

“Ribs,” Emma croaked.

 “I’ll heal you first, then,” the queen replied, managing to find the one unbruised part of the savior’s face to kiss her then closing her eyes in concentration.

The release from pain was so dramatic that this time Emma sobbed in earnest. With her full range of vision restored, she could see that the queen had backup: Hook and her father. “Hi, guys,” she said.

“And now to free you,” Regina began to flick her wrist at the cuffs, but Emma interrupted her.

“Healed or not, these chains are the only things holding me up, babe.”

Regina gave a small, tight smile at the endearment, then turned to her companions. Hook started to step forward, but her eyes slid over him. “David?”

Charming quickly moved to support Emma with one arm around her, so that when Regina waved her hand at the shackles he took her weight. “Thanks, Dad.”

Emma concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other as they climbed out of what turned out to be another storm cellar like they’d found near the farmhouse, this one in the woods. Once they were out of sight and had some cover among the trees, David called for a rest, easing the savior down to sit on a log, clearly having felt her flagging. Regina came to sit beside her, and the blonde gratefully leaned against her. The others paced around, watching for any sign of pursuit.

“How long?” the savior asked.

“Five days,” her father answered.

She wasn’t sure whether to be horrified or feel relieved that it had actually been that long and not just her mind cracking under the strain. “How did you find me?”

“Regina found you. She said she could feel your magic.” Hook was plainly skeptical.

The queen quirked an elegant eyebrow. “We have a connection, as you recall.” Tilting her chin to speak so close to Emma’s ear that her lips brushed it, she murmured, “I can _feel you inside me_.” The blonde sputtered, wondering how she could be so wildly turned on despite, well, everything. “My apologies for taking so long to realize I could do so, however,” Regina concluded, this comment for general consumption.

“Did you see who she is?” Hook asked, plainly uncomfortable with their intimate attitude and eager to change the subject.

“I never saw her before. A white lady,” she shot a look at Hook for his color comment a while back. “A little ginger? Tall. British?”

David gasped. “Oh my god, that sounds like Zelena.”

“The midwife?” Emma asked, sitting bolt upright. She’d always meant to get around to meeting the woman who’d been so helpful to her mother, but had been so busy with Regina and Henry and the curse that it hadn’t happened.

“With whom you left Henry?” Regina was on her feet.

“And Snow.” David was horrified.

“We have to go. We have to go _now._ ” Emma insisted, struggling up herself.

Hook scoffed. “Not ten minutes ago you looked like death, Swan. Get your sea legs back first.”

“Do you think I care about that?” the blonde roared at him.

“Wait,” Charming said. “Wait.” At Emma’s glare, he hastened to clarify, “Not that. We can’t go barging in there. And we can’t let her see _you_. As soon as she does she’ll know the jig is up and that puts them in danger. We have to make her think we’re not onto her and just get them away first before we try anything else.”

The blonde seethed, but knew he was right. “Just do it fast. I can't imagine we have a lot of time. She and her minions have been coming down every so often to try new ways to take my heart and our window of opportunity ends when she realizes I’m gone. Plus, by the way, she has Rumpelstiltskin's dagger,” Emma explained. “I don't know how we can fight her if she can use his power and her own.”

“Alright!” Regina said sharply, drawing their attention to her. “One thing at a time. I will transport David and myself to the loft to get Henry. And Snow,” she added, not quite as an afterthought. “We’ll meet back at my house.” Meeting Hook’s gaze, she spoke very slowly and clearly, as if she doubted his intelligence. Which, Emma conceded, she probably did. “I am trusting you to get Emma home in her weakened state. If anything happens to her I will destroy you if it is the last thing I do.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” he said, cowed by the fire in her eyes.

**

This time Emma did not object to the idea of staying at home, out of sight, since the last time she’d gone wandering around had ended spectacularly badly. Once they made it back to Regina’s in the sheriff’s cruiser, she sent Hook out to round up their usual crew: the remaining dwarves, Granny and Ruby, Blue to represent the fairies. She hesitated, then added Robin and his men to the list, deciding that even if she didn’t know him well they were going to need archers when there were flying monkeys to deal with.

Then she settled in to wait, pacing in the entryway. She knew she should be spending her time coming up with a plan to defeat the witch, but it was all she could do to not let her fear for her family overcome her.

Relief washed over her as she caught the sound of Mary Margaret’s ancient SUV rumbling up the driveway. She heard the door open and the slap of sneakers on pavement before the engine even shut off and hoped Henry had at least waited until the vehicle stopped moving. Then her son was flinging Regina’s door open and flinging himself into her arms.

“Mom! They found you!” he cried, all little boy again in his relief.

As she’d driven them both back from the woods, after vigorously pointing out to Killian that she had been healed perfectly adequately, thank you, and he didn’t even know _how_ to drive a car, the pirate had filled Emma in on what they had told Henry about her absence, Regina having decided that “Emma got lost in the woods” was the least traumatizing explanation of her lengthy and terrifying disappearance.

The blonde was abruptly extra glad the queen had healed her and that she'd taken the world's quickest shower when she walked in the door; the kid would have been incredibly distressed to see her the way she’d been.

After hugging Emma for long, long moments, he let go finally, then immediately threw himself at Regina, who had followed him in at a calmer pace along with Snow and David, exclaiming, “You saved her!”

The blonde realized suddenly that this was the first time Henry had hugged his adoptive mother since their return to Storybrooke.

“Of course I did, dear,” Regina said, startled, and Emma could see joy and pain warring on her face as she held him for the first time in over a year.

“You were right, my family was about to get bigger. You’re stuck with me forever now, Regina.”

The queen let out a strangled little sound that was half-laugh, half-sob, but she just hugged him tightly as he sustained the contact for a surprisingly long time. Seeing the older woman crumple a bit when he finally pulled away, Emma took his place, slipping an arm around her waist and resting her forehead against her temple.

David cleared his throat, and the blonde realized that while she’d been caught up in the emotions of the Regina-Henry moment the reinforcements had arrived.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting knifed over ice cream is inspired by Taystee’s king cone anger in Orange is the new Black.
> 
> I think Chapter 10 won’t happen for a bit. I’m not happy with my Regina/Zelena showdown in Chapter 11 (set up in 10) and am hoping writing through/in the gaps of/around 3x16 will improve it.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Perhaps the most upsetting event from 3x15 happens here. But it’s OQ-free and I did a little fix-it job on 3x16 too.

Looking around at the flock of expectant faces, Emma took a deep breath and then took charge. It was coming increasingly naturally now after all her practice at being the savior.

“Hey, Granny,” she began, “can I persuade you to make Henry a snack? I’m sure he’s famished and he loves your cooking.” The tough old woman met her eyes and nodded, understanding that she was to keep him in the kitchen and out of earshot for as long as possible.

Of course, Henry was old enough now that he _also_ understood the purpose of the request, and he gave Emma an unimpressed, “You owe me” sort of look before turning to Granny and saying brightly, “That’d be great! The kitchen is this way!”

Emma led them all into Regina’s study, and it was a tight fit, but it had a door and the family room did not.

“Okay everybody, what’re we gonna do?” she asked.

David suggested, “We’ll set a trap. I’ll text her that Snow is going into labor.”

“We have to get the dagger. With the Dark One she's unstoppable,” Hook pointed out.

Leroy rumbled, “It's not like she's going to leave it unattended.”

“No, she'll keep it on her person,” Regina agreed.

Robin volunteered, “That sounds like a job for a thief,” looking at the queen to see if she was impressed.

“No, it's a job for a pickpocket,” Emma corrected, both feeling jealous and knowing the reaction was ridiculous. _She_ was the one Regina took to her bed, not some scruffy near-stranger. “And with Neal still missing I'm our best bet.”

“How do you propose to pick a powerful sorceress's proverbial pocket?” Robin challenged.

The savior shrugged. “A mark's a mark. Misdirection of attention.”

Regina’s lips curved into a devious little smirk. “We need her to think we're foolish or ignorant enough to attempt a frontal assault,” she said, understanding perfectly.

Emma gave her a tight smile back. “Which is incredibly dangerous, but it’s the only thing I can think of and we don’t have a whole lot of time to think if we want to keep the element of surprise. Thoughts on what can be a distraction?”

“Well, um,” Nova, who’d tagged along with Leroy, began uncertainly. “What about that thing that Blue did with Regina that one time? Or, two times I guess.” She trailed off as the queen glowered, but the older woman relented when Emma laid a calming hand on her arm.

Turning back to the fairy, Emma was impressed. “A distraction within a distraction. Someone from the front, fairies from the side, and I sneak up from the rear for the dagger. It just might work. She may have it practically glued to her hand, but she can’t pay attention to that many things at once.” She glanced at Blue, who nodded agreement. “So who’s the bait?”

“It has to be me,” Regina insisted. “She knows none of the rest of you can hope to even slow her down.”

Emma met her eyes for a long, long moment, but then nodded, “I can’t argue with that. But you should know something. She told me you’re her sister.” There was a collective gasp and Emma rolled her eyes.

“That’s ridiculous,” Regina scoffed. “I’m an only child.”

“It doesn’t matter if Zelena is your sister or not,” Emma pointed out. “But if she believes it that’s the only lead we have to go on for what she’s up to. Any ideas?”

“I’ve never even met her before today. Regardless, it changes nothing. It’s my fight; I’ve got it handled.”

The savior held her gaze for another long beat, then reluctantly nodded acquiescence. Turning to Robin, Emma asked, “Can you and the Merry Men cover us from air assault?”

“Aye, lass,” he agreed, more sober now that they were down to it.

“And me,” added Snow, her jaw set in a stubborn line.

“Maybe you should stay home,” David said, then recoiled a little at the look his wife turned on him.

The former bandit was deeply offended. “I’m the best archer here.”

“I know, but we’ll manage.” Charming’s attempt to placate her was clearly getting nowhere.

Emma happened to agree with her dad on this one, so she bailed him out. “Mom, you’re about to go into labor any second. Please just accept that you’re not at your best right now and don’t push this. And you don’t just have yourself to think about.” Snow’s look got even more stony, clearly unmoved and resenting the invocation of the baby.

“I would emphasize that the witch sought you out. There is every likelihood that she wants the child,” Regina pointed out. “The products of true love are, as we well know, magical,” she added with the tiniest possible affectionate glance at Emma.

That got through to her mother, Emma saw, and she smiled gratefully at the queen. “Stay here with Ruby and Granny and Henry, okay?” Snow relented, dipping her head in acceptance.

“David, can I put you in charge of positioning archers and fairies so that we have the whole street covered?” He nodded. Looking around at everyone once more, the savior took a deep breath. “Are we ready?”

There was a general rumble of agreement, and they started to move for the exit.

Emma gripped Regina by the arm, in _their spot_ , then pulled her in for an embrace, needing to have this last little moment before they put themselves in mortal peril. The queen’s attention stayed riveted to the door, however, and when the blonde glanced she saw that all of their compatriots had stopped in their tracks, some of them gaping and some looking away uncomfortably. But Snow and Ruby were smiling indulgently.

“Can you give us a minute?” Emma growled.

Once they were alone, she turned her attention back to Regina, who was looking at her intently now. Taking a deep breath as if having made up her mind, the queen plunged her hand into her own chest and pulled out her heart.

“Will you keep this for me?” she asked as if it was totally regular to be holding one’s own pulsing, somewhat blackened heart.

“What, like in my pocket?” Emma was appalled and baffled.

Regina smiled. “No, in here,” she explained, tapping lightly on the blonde’s breastbone with her other hand. When the savior just gaped at her, she explained, “Never bring your heart to a witch fight. And she can't take it from you, clearly.”

“But how is there space? Because, like, having a hand in there hurts like hell.”

Regina tilted her head in rueful agreement, but insisted “This won’t.” At Emma’s skeptical look, she cocked an elegant eyebrow. “It's magic, dear. The laws of physics don't exactly apply. Will you trust me that taking a heart and giving one differ?” The queen rested her heart against the savior’s chest, beside where Emma could feel her own heart thudding. “May I?” she asked again, and the blonde nodded.

As it slipped in, the savior felt an echo of Regina's deep affection for her sing through her veins, and it was so warm.  

Emma had one last worry. “And it won’t hurt you? Because Pan and Henry-”

“It isn’t the same,” the older woman insisted, pain flickering over her face at the memory. “Pan was draining Henry’s heart to extend his own life. You're just holding onto it for me.”

Keeping her hand resting on their hearts nestled together, Regina threaded the other through Emma’s hair and kissed her slow and deep.

“You're the safest place for my heart,” she murmured as they parted. Emma knew she didn't just mean behind her sternum.

But when they stepped apart and finally broke their contact, the light went out of the queen’s eyes as her last connection to her feelings faded.

**

As she crouched out of sight near the entrance to the hospital, Emma felt better just knowing that there were archers on the rooftops, even though she couldn’t see them. Everyone was in position now, and David had signaled that the text was sent, and all there was to do was wait.

With all her senses keyed up for Zelena to arrive and Regina to challenge her, the blonde was startled to hear a heavy-footed someone stumbling up the street toward her. She peered cautiously out of her hiding place.

That form, wandering seemingly aimlessly in the shadows- it was strangely familiar. “Neal?” she hissed.

His head turned immediately and his eyes lit up. “Emma, it’s good to see you, and even better to have you remember me,” he said, coming over to where she was concealed down an alley and reaching out to hug her. He looked horribly aged.

“Keep it down,” she warned as they pulled apart. “But it’s good to see you, too. Though seriously, you look like hell. And what the fuck is that on your hand?”

“I don’t know,” Neal said, staring at the symbol seared into his skin as if for the first time. “It was there when I woke up in the woods.” He shook his head as if to clear it. “A lot is hazy. I only remember snatches here and there. How long have we been in Storybrooke?”’

“Almost a month.”

He looked startled. “Wow. Yeah. I honestly don’t know where the time went.” He winced. “And yeah, I feel like shit.”

“That reminds me of the mark from the wraith that almost killed Regina. Belle is in your dad’s shop with all the arcane books, let me just- I’ll send her a picture of it and we’ll see what she can find.”

As she texted the picture, he asked, “So, um, when can I see Henry?” with attempted casualness.

“Neal, I don’t-”

“I know, okay, I know I can’t just come barging back into your life. Especially with Regina.”

“You heard?”

“In five seconds. Literally the first person I saw when I stumbled into town.” He chuckled, then grimaced again.

“I’m sorry,” she said, not sure what else to say.

“Why are you sorry? It’s not like we were- are-” Neal paused. “Is it serious?”

“Yeah,” she breathed, thinking of the fact that she was at this very moment carrying Regina’s heart in her chest. She knew she had that soft, loving look on her face that Henry always teased her for, but she couldn’t help it.

 He looked a little hurt, but nodded. “So, Henry?”

“I just, I need you to wait just until Regina can make a memory potion in a couple of days, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah okay, I-” his sentence trailed off into a groan and he collapsed to the ground. At the same moment, her phone rang, and it was Belle, and the savior was torn between wanting to try to comfort her first love as he writhed in pain and knowing the answer might be on the other end of the line.

Picking up the call as she crouched beside Neal and helped him to sit up, Emma listened in horror as the bookish woman explained that the symbol was from a key that opened the vault of the Dark One, which would restore the Dark One in exchange for another life, and that if he was marked Neal must have used it in the Enchanted Forest.

“It’s a one-for-one trade, draining the life from one to give power to the other,” Belle finished. “It can be a slow process, and clearly it has been if Neal is still alive. But it can’t be prevented.”

At that precise moment Neal cried out and collapsed again. Emma dropped her phone and cradled him.

“Am I dying?” he gritted out. She nodded, tears running down her face and her heart aching too much to speak. “Make sure Henry knows that in the end I was a good father.” Neal was silent for a long, long moment. “I hope it works out with Regina. I think maybe she’s your Tallahassee.”

She smiled through her tears, feeling such great affection for this man that he cared so much about her happiness. “Yeah, maybe.”

“Love you,” he said. Then, with a final sigh, his eyes went blank.

And then, before she could even process, she heard Regina challenge the witch, and it was time for their plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think Neal’s death is more tragic if Henry remembering is imminent, so that’s what I did. I also didn’t make him and his dad be in the same body because I’d already explained Rumpel’s madness as Zelena brain-grabbing.
> 
> Also, I swear on, I don’t know, the perfection that is Lana that I had the “I’m an only child” line written before the 3x16 preview came out. 
> 
> I don’t think Robin Hood as pickpocket in 3x16 makes any sense with the kind of thieving he’s traditionally associated with, so it’s a good thing I already had it written for Emma to show him up on that. But I couldn’t not use the archers even if RH might turn out to be a bad guy later.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Incorporates dialogue from 3x16, but remixed, SwanQueen’d and generally more better!

Edging to the mouth of the alley, Emma could see Regina and Zelena approaching each other warily, Rumpel standing off to one side like an unattended pet.

“It seems my cover is blown,” Zelena was saying, “but at least now I can finally catch up with my little sister.” She put a little squeak at the end, and Emma found the faux-sweetness entirely grating.

 “You are _not_ my sister. My father may have been a coward, but he wasn’t a philanderer,” Regina snarled.

“Ah, but he wasn’t our mother’s first attempt to sleep her way to the top, love. Pity you inherited that trait.”

“Fuck you,” Regina growled, throwing a fireball.  Zelena easily batted it aside.

“I know you’re of the Sapphic persuasion these days, my pretty, but I think _not_ , on account of we’re family. Half-sisters, if you want to get technical,” she condescended.

Emma could see Regina working up into a proper rage now as she snarled, “I think I would remember if my mother told me she had a love child with a scarecrow.” At that the witch threw a green fireball back, equally easily avoided by the queen, who was steadily advancing toward Zelena, trying to back her as close to Emma’s hiding spot as possible, as they’d planned.

“Isn’t that always the way?” Zelena asked Rumpelstiltskin rhetorically, showing the depth of her contempt for Regina by looking away as if she was not a threat. “You spend your whole life looking for your family and then it turns out they’re entirely tedious.” She shrugged.  “Oh well. Now that we’ve had our little reunion I’m perfectly happy to destroy you.”

“I don’t lose,” Regina snarled.

“Neither do I. One of us is about to make history,” she gave a sickly little smile. “And I’ll look so much better than you doing it.”

At that, Regina hit her hard across the face, having moved fully into arm’s reach during Zelena’s little aside. “I’ve been waiting to do that all day,” she growled, then flicked her wrist, sending the town’s only stoplight crashing toward the witch, stepping back out of the way just in time.

Zelena batted it aside with a magical gesture of her own, then with another motion threw Regina across the intersection and onto the hood of a car. Emma broke out in a cold sweat, desperate to run to her, draw the witch’s fire, do something-anything to help. But she knew her only way to help Regina was to follow through on the plan.

The savior was incredibly relieved to see the queen slide off the car, not terribly much worse for the wear—or at least not so banged up adrenaline wouldn’t carry her through—but when Zelena put out the queen’s next fireball Emma began to be afraid in earnest. But she kept moving toward the witch, slowly, carefully.

“Come out, Blue Fairy,” Zelena called. “I’m too smart for that trick. But I’m so glad we have an audience to see the Evil Queen lose. And just to speed things up, I’m going to let the Dark One off his leash.”

Regina held up her hands immediately, and the invisible shield she had conjured lit up gold on one side and green on the other as the two of them tried to force their way through. The distance to the queen’s body got smaller with every second. Soon she fell to her knees under the combined magical assault, her nose beginning to bleed from the strain, and Emma couldn’t look anymore.

Creeping up behind the witch with careful, silent steps, the blonde slowed her breath almost to nothing and shook out her fingers. A clear mind, a clean take, she thought to herself, remembering the lessons Neal had given her all those years ago, pushing the ache at the thought of him firmly from her mind. There would be time to grieve later. If they survived.

“You can’t beat me, little sis. Everything Rumpelstiltskin taught you, he taught me too. But I was the better student. And now he works for me,” she cackled. Regina’s shield sputtered at last and vanished, and in an instant Zelena had her suspended in the air, drawing her within arm’s reach. “I’m bored of this,” she declared, plunging her hand into the queen’s chest for her heart.

The savior saw the glint of the dagger tucked into the back of the witch’s waistband and closed her fingers around cool metal in one fluid motion, three strides away before the witch was any the wiser. Unfortunately, unlike stealing from a mere mortal, having a running start didn’t provide any protection from a sorceress, and pain blasted through every cell of the savior’s body, sending her sprawling.

Emma managed, just barely, to keep hold of the dagger, and she knew that she had the power to call on Rumpelstiltskin, but she hurt too much to concentrate.

“I don’t know what you thought you were doing, but I don’t dance with amateurs, dear,” Zelena scoffed.

“I’m not an amateur, I’m the savior,” Emma gritted out.

“Hm, it appears someone’s got an inflated sense of self-worth,” the witch jeered. Emma could only wait in ongoing agony for the inevitable, for Zelena to take the dagger back and kill her once and for all.

Abruptly the pain lifted, and the blonde heard a shriek behind her. Getting to her feet as well as she could with every nerve still screaming residual pain, she saw the witch contorted on the ground, wrapped in a purple glow that it took her a few seconds to realize was emanating from Regina. The queen was advancing on the witch, her face an inhuman mask of murderous fury.

“You’ll pay for that,” the older woman snarled, and as the field of magic brightened the witch screamed again.

“Regina,” Emma said soothingly, tucking the dagger carefully into her own waistband before walking slowly toward the queen like to a wounded animal. Regina didn’t respond, just sent another jolt into the witch. Reaching the older woman’s side, the savior wasn’t sure she should touch her, so instead tried to get through to her again by talking. “Regina, don’t do this. We got her.” Emma was dimly aware of the Blue Fairy advancing from the other side, ready to bind Zelena.

Her eyes still locked on her enemy, the older woman stopped causing Zelena pain, but insisted, “She deserves to suffer for what she did to you. To us. She is someone to destroy.”

“No, baby. That’s vengeance, not justice. You know that,” she murmured, soft and calming. “We’ll bind her magic and lock her up and she won’t be able to hurt our family, okay? Don’t go down this revenge path again. Do it for me. Do it for Henry.” Regina twitched, but didn’t relent. “Baby, I know you can't feel much right now but I need you to listen to me.”

Abruptly the air was filled with flying monkeys, followed closely by the twanging of crossbow strings. Regina was momentarily distracted as a screeching beast crashed to the ground at her feet, and Zelena threw off the bubble of magic surrounding her.

But just as she drew herself up to launch a new attack on the two of them, Blue hit her with the binding magic from the side, and she was frozen in place.

Zelena screamed defiance, and struggled, and cursed, but the fairy’s spell held. “You haven’t won, Regina,” she spat. “I will complete my curse. I will get everything you ever had!”

“Not today,” Regina snarled, jerking her head at the converging fairies to take the witch away.

As soon as they were sure Zelena was secured, they both whirled to take on the monkeys, but putting archers on the rooftops had worked and the creatures were scattered, some wounded, some driven off.

Assured that the immediate danger had passed, Emma reached out now to grip Regina’s arm, and the queen inhaled sharply, looking at the blonde with emotion in her eyes again with even this faint connection to her heart reestablished.

“I need you to help me give you your heart back,” the savior said urgently, holding the older woman by both biceps now. “How do I take it out?”

Turning to her fully, Regina cupped Emma’s cheek briefly, then slid her hand down her neck and over her collarbone. Her hand rested warm against her chest for a moment before pressing gently in and pulling her dark heart out.

“How- what- but no one can take a heart out of my chest,” the blonde sputtered as the queen pushed it back into her own chest.

“No one can _take_ it,” the older woman agreed, “but you gave it freely to me.”

The sound that came out of Emma’s mouth was half-laugh, half-sob, and she pulled Regina into an embrace, not caring that they were in the middle of the street. “Fuck,” she breathed. “I am so glad it wasn’t in your chest when she went rummaging around. That scared the shit out of me. It looked like she _had_ you- How did you-?” She pulled back just enough to look her in the eye, unable to even finish the sentence.

“She is undoubtedly more powerful than I am,” Regina was clearly distressed to admit, “but you not only took the Dark One out of the equation but divided her attention.” The queen swallowed hard. “And then of course I had an additional incentive to find every shred of power within me,” she finished.

At the sound of a fake cough, they tore their eyes away from each other to see their co-conspirators converging on their position.

“Mother Superior has Zelena secured in a cell reinforced with fairy dust,” David reported. “We still need to figure out how to break her curse, but at least she can’t harm us.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Emma said. Turning to Gold, she reached into her waistband for the dagger. “Here,” she said holding it out.

His eyebrows crawled up his face. “You surprise me, dearie.”

Emma just shrugged. “I don’t want to have your power. I frankly don’t trust _anyone_ to use your power for good. But I do trust _you_ to protect us as your family, as you did in Neverland.” She paused, swallowing hard, remembering. “Particularly since your family is a bit smaller now.”

“Bae.” Rumpel’s face fell. “He resurrected me. Is he?” His expression showed that he knew exactly what the price of his return had been.

Emma tipped her head toward the alleyway where Neal had fallen. “The vault caught up to him,” she said quietly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zelena is handled for now, but I’m not sure we should count her out yet.


	12. Chapter 12

This day had truly been endless. Emma couldn’t quite believe that it had begun with her strung up in a dark cellar where she had been for _days_ with no hope of rescue on the horizon and ended with Zelena at least neutralized if not quite defeated.

Dragging themselves wearily back to Regina’s house, the two of them immediately checked on Henry, who was sleeping soundly as it was nearly eleven. Emma talked Regina into taking a shower to try to relax a little while she filled Granny, Ruby, and Snow in on what happened. After the three women left with her thanks, the blonde spent some quality time in the shower herself, scrubbing the feeling of captivity from her skin.

Stepping back into the bedroom, fully expecting to see Regina passed out in exhaustion, she was surprised to see the bed empty, only to be pinned against the wall with one thigh pressed firmly between hers. The queen seized her by the back of the neck, conquering her mouth and rocking hips against her firmly. 

“I almost lost you,” the older woman growled as she broke the kiss. She then attacked Emma’s throat, biting, sucking, leaving marks.

“But you didn’t,” the savior panted, understanding suddenly what Regina’s urgency was about.

“Don’t you ever do that again,” the queen insisted, pulling at Emma’s tank top, digging hungry fingertips into her sides.

“I won’t,” the savior readily agreed, knowing it was what the older woman needed to hear right now, even if asking her to never be in danger again was a bit unrealistic.

“Don’t you fucking leave me,” Regina demanded before hauling the thin shirt up roughly and twisting her body to greedily mouth a nipple while still thrusting her hips steadily.

“I won’t.” This Emma could promise unreservedly, though it came out as a groan because fuck- her queen felt so good hard and demanding like this. The blonde did not bother even trying to suppress her moan when the older woman seized on the other breast with equal fervor after a moment.

“Mine,” Regina hissed, pulling away just before her aggressive touch would have tipped into pain. “Mine- Mine- Mine- Mine,” she nearly chanted as she tore at the blonde’s pajama pants, yanking them and her underwear her only part way down her thighs before pushing inside her forcefully but so easily because the last few minutes had left Emma wet, wet, wet and the savior gladly sighed, “Yours.”

Being possessed like this was so good. Regina fucked her hard, pulling her hair to tip her head back and latching onto her neck again demandingly. The blonde reveled in giving herself up to that insistence, because everything her queen did felt amazing.

Then fuck- the older woman was pulling at her g-spot _just right_ , the perfect counterpoint to firm pressure on Emma’s clit with her thumb, and she was going to come so fast. Regina _remembered_ from a one-off casual mention that Emma liked this. She _cared_ enough to remember.

After a lifetime of abandonment, the lost little girl who didn’t matter and didn’t think she ever would finally had someone who would fight for her, risk her life for her, who cherished her completely and never wanted to let her go.

And that, as much as anything, made her come so hard she saw stars.

The queen’s fingers stilled, but stayed inside, and her lips came to rest against the blonde’s pulse point. The weight of it hit Emma then—that as much as Regina had nearly lost her so had she.

“I need you,” she found herself growling. She wanted to pick her queen up, throw her down on the bed, _take_ her, but she was still too shaky from having such a powerful orgasm. Instead, she gripped Regina’s wrist to have her pull out, then immediately tucked that arm behind the older woman’s back, gripping her firmly by the hair with the other hand and kissing her hard. She got a step and a half toward the bed before realizing her half-off pants were going to be a problem for walking.

Releasing Regina, she finished shucking out of her clothes as fast as humanly possible, then pulled the two of them together again. Her mouth trailed hot kisses down the older woman’s throat as her hands gripped the hem of the queen’s silky nightie, sliding it up over her hips as she guided them both toward the bed. Stopping just short, she finished stripping her queen completely bare, then pushed her downwards just shy of shoving.

Regina’s legs parted slightly as she landed, and Emma could see the glisten of arousal and- “Fuck, I want you in my mouth,” she murmured, dropping to her knees beside the bed. The blonde hooked her arms under the queen’s hips and pulled her to the edge with one yank and had both of the older woman’s thighs over her shoulders before either of them could even breathe.

“Need you,” she murmured again against Regina’s cunt. Needed her in her mouth as a parched person at an oasis, needed her in her heart as a piece she hadn’t known she was missing, needed her in her life as meaning and salvation and _home_.

Emma began to eat her queen relentlessly, demanding everything she had to give, loving the breathy little sounds she was making. The older woman soon propped herself up on her elbows, and their eyes locked and held for long, long moments as the blonde stroked and flicked and sucked at her clit.

Regina’s hips twitched involuntarily, uncontrollably, but Emma held her steady, making her take this sensation on the savior’s terms, and before long the queen had collapsed back onto the bed, her shudders too intense to sustain the position. She was moaning now, noises that came from so deep in her chest they must be starting somewhere down around her clit, pulled out of her with every firm stroke of Emma’s tongue.

The older woman gripped the sheets with one hand and blonde hair with the other, but of course Emma had no intention of going anywhere.

Regina came hard, and she was so fucking beautiful, taut muscle and soft curves and a mostly-swallowed keening cry.

Emma licked down and pushed her tongue inside, then stroked wide around, then inside again, carefully avoiding Regina’s clit to not ovestimulate but not done with having her in her mouth yet. As soon as the aftershocks subsided she met the older woman’s desire-darkened eyes and insisted, “Again.”

“God,” the queen breathed. “Yes,” and the word trailed off into a little sob of pleasure as the blonde’s tongue found her clit again.

Unwrapping one arm from Regina’s hips, Emma brought her hand up and slid two fingers inside, moaning against her at how tight she felt, how her internal muscles gripped slickly, so hungry for her touch. She fucked the older woman with steady intensity for long moments, loving the sensation of being inside her and her little whimpers of pleasure.

When she curled her fingers, the queen’s back left the bed entirely. Regina’s hand gripped her hair again, beginning to cant her hips against the blonde’s mouth as soon as her shoulder blades hit the bed again, nearly fucking her face even with one leg held steady, struggling to stay quiet.

Soon Emma could feel her getting close and saw the older woman’s free hand reaching desperately toward the head of the bed for a pillow. Just when the savior thought she might have to back off and not make her come quite yet, the queen grabbed it.

Emma intensified her caress impossibly more, and then Regina was pressing the pillow over her own mouth to muffle a scream as every muscle seized in orgasm a second time.

The blonde withdrew her fingers gently, pressing soft kisses to the older woman’s thighs and hips. Crawling up onto the bed, she lay beside her, smoothing a few sweaty strands of hair off her brow. With the edge off her urgent need for reassurance, the savior noticed for the first time the bruises and scrapes starting to show up vividly on Regina’s smooth skin. She began checking her over carefully.

“I healed the major injuries,” the queen murmured in explanation. “Too tired for the ones that are only skin deep.”

“We can use my magic,” Emma insisted. “Teach me.”

Regina gave her a small, soft smile. “Will it. _Want_ me to be healed.” The blonde concentrated hard on that thought and began brushing her lips over the abrasions and contusions gently, one after another, watching with delight as they disappeared.

Needing to roll the queen over to check her back, Emma realized being this close to the edge of the bed wasn’t going to work.

“Mm, slide up,” she hummed and soon the older woman was laid out in the middle of the bed on her stomach, the blonde tracing every tiny remaining injury until every inch of Regina’s body was whole. She sprawled out beside the queen, who shifted toward her and kissed her slow and deep.

They tucked together as they so perfectly did, kissing easy and intimate. Emma sank into the sensation, perfectly content to be here like this with the older woman forever, and for many long minutes they just _were_ , relaxed, connected, together.

Then Regina rolled on top, their thighs intertwining perfectly and the weight of her just right. The queen slid one hand up Emma’s thigh and used her other to pull the savior’s hand between her own legs.

“Together?” she suggested, and Emma smiled.

Fucking hard and needy had been about their fear of loss, about needing to remind themselves that they were still alive and together. It had been incredible. But as their fingers slid home, so was this in an entirely different way.

Almost immediately they found the perfect rhythm, pushing into each other sweet and steady, each thumb sliding easily against the other’s clit.

“We’re here,” the blonde murmured after long moments, bringing up her other hand to cup Regina’s face.

“Mine,” Regina breathed, affection this time rather than possession.

“Yours,” Emma agreed. “And you’re mine.” She swallowed back the "Always" she wanted to add. She loved this woman so completely, but knew Regina wasn't ready.

Their eyes locked, their hips and their hands and their breaths in tandem. The world contracted to this contact, to stroking each other with undemanding fingers, easy, exactly right.

They had all the time in the world now just to be together, their easy mutual caress building slowly, but steadily, until Regina tensed and sighed as she came for a third time, Emma following a split second later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unless TPTB gives me something I really have to play with/fix, The Truth Always is winding down. Right now I’m thinking 2 more chapters and an epilogue.


	13. Chapter 13

The next day was spent trying to set things right. David and the dwarves had rounded up the wounded monkeys the night before to treat for arrow wounds and contain at the veterinary hospital until a cure for their transformation could be found, but that was only the beginning.

Fortunately, Rumpel was coherent enough to help them get back his mind, but it took time to break the seals on the vault hidden in the witch’s farmhouse pantry since Zelena, knowing about her relationship to Regina, hadn’t used blood magic. Then, they had to figure out how reverse the spell the witch had used to take Charming’s courage.

Later, as they cleaned up the intersection where the battle had taken place, Doc had tried to complain about his Miata being dented. One look at the loathing on Emma’s face at the grievance and he paled and walked away quickly. That was in his best interest, because the savior had been about three seconds from throwing _him_ against something at high velocity for callously disregarding the fact that the damage to the car had been caused by Regina’s _body_ flying onto it.

And then, they had to plan Neal’s memorial service.

As a result, it wasn’t until just before dinner that Emma, checking her phone for the next day’s weather, realized, “Hey, the full moon’s tomorrow.”

“Indeed it is,” Regina acknowledged.

“Do you have what you need to brew the potion?”

“Yes.” The queen’s tone verged on indifferent.

There was definitely something wrong here, and the blonde gripped the older woman by the biceps and pulled her gently around to face her. “Why don’t you sound excited about it?”

“Henry is going to remember that I’m the Evil Queen,” Regina forced out almost inaudibly. A quick, shaky breath, and she went on in a rush, “He’s growing to love me as your partner. Perhaps I should just accept that.”

“No way, Regina,” Emma insisted, stepping closer and wrapping her up. “Okay, yeah, there was a time when he saw you as the Evil Queen, and quite frankly he was a little shit about it. But you _do_ remember what he said as we left, don’t you? You’re his mom, not a villain. Okay?” There was no reply. “Okay?” she asked again, tightening her arms.

“Okay,” the older woman agreed softly, the tension in her body falling away as she leaned into the embrace.

**

Watching Regina brew the potion was almost unbearably sexy. Her sure, efficient motions in setting up the equipment, the brainy concentration of her precise measurement of components and systematic mixing, the little flicker of pleasure that crossed her face when she called forth her magic, it all drove Emma wild. If this hadn’t been entirely the wrong time, the blonde would have seriously considered trying to fuck her right there on the table in her office. 

 “It’s complete,” the queen said finally, swirling the potion together and watching it begin to glow the pale blue Emma remembered from her own dose. It was only then that the blonde realized it was late in the night and that she’d been entirely captivated watching the older woman work steadily since moonrise hours earlier.

As Regina stoppered the bottle and turned immediately like she was going to march out of the building, she swayed a little.  Emma was by her side in an instant, sliding her arms around the older woman to hold her steady.

“Hey, you’re exhausted and it’s the middle of the night,” the blonde murmured, tilting her head to brush her cheek against the queen’s. “We can give it to him in the morning. Let’s go to bed.”

**

“Hey, kid, do me a favor and drink that thing by your cereal,” Emma said, trying to sound casual. Regina had shut down entirely this morning, unwilling to speak to or look at either of them and so jumpy that the blonde had stopped touching her. 

He looked at the pale blue liquid skeptically. “What? Why?”

Mindful of the older woman’s explanation that it would only work if taken not just willingly but with intent—which had been why Hook had to talk her into it instead of just spiking her drink—she explained, “It’ll help your memory. I already took mine. Doesn’t taste gross or anything.”  For all Regina had told her she didn’t want to know what went into it, it actually hadn’t. As she recalled, it was kind of sweet and spicy, like the scent conjured by the queen’s magic.

“Okay, whatever,” he said, tossing it back in a gulp. As his head tipped back down, she saw recognition flash over his face. “Mom!” he cried, bolting up from his seat and rushing into Regina's arms.

Knowing that this was healing a gaping wound in her queen’s soul and a loss Henry hadn’t even known he had, Emma felt tears well up and didn’t even try to stop them from running down her face. But she also smiled, because they were an exquisitely beautiful picture of familial love, and the care that had shadowed Regina’s face even when smiling was finally, blissfully, perfectly gone.

This was complete happiness, just watching them, but then the older woman met her eyes and held out a hand to her. Emma stepped in and wrapped them both up, kissing joyful tears from Regina’s cheeks even as her own tears mingled with them. They stayed that way for a long, long time. Together. One family.

**

It was a hell of a thing to have to spring on Henry immediately after recovering his memories, but Emma had barely managed to convince Rumpelstiltskin to delay the funeral this long. He wasn’t exactly known for being a patient man.

Now here they were, gathered around a gaping hole in the ground to say goodbye to Neal. Regina and Emma stood bracketing Henry, arms around him. Watching their son looking solemn and brave, Emma was reminded forcefully of Neal as he’d been Neverland, so dedicated to protecting his family. Even if she ultimately hadn’t wanted to be _with_ him again then or since, she was glad to have gotten to know the noble side, letting this new respect for him slowly start to replace the resentment she’d held for over ten years.

They shared the place directly in front of the casket with Rumplestiltskin. Belle had her arms around him comfortingly, her chin tucked into his shoulder, her deep and steady love for him readily apparent. When Regina began a slow, soothing stroking on Emma’s back, barely there through thick layers of glove and coat, the parallel hit the blonde hard in the chest and she inhaled sharply.

As she turned to meet the queen’s eyes over Henry’s head, Emma realized several things in rapid succession. First, Regina was reliving the loss of Daniel—her multiple losses of Daniel, three times, just as Emma had lost Neal, in fact. Second, even though the older woman hadn’t known Neal well or liked him much—as much as she’d been jealous of him not just as a competitor for Henry’s attention but maybe even at that point Emma’s—she was committed now to being here for Emma, to  helping her get through this.

And that led to the third shock of recognition—she probably didn’t fully realize it yet, and almost certainly she couldn’t admit it yet, but Emma knew with startling clarity in that moment that Regina loved her.

**

Later that evening, they found themselves sitting around the table for a before-bed cocoa as a family to decompress from what had been a very emotionally taxing day. Emma caught their son looking at them keenly, and knew something was coming.

“Were you guys always- um- together?” Henry asked, stumbling a little over what to call it. “Like, when we all lived here before?”

“No, I told you that because I wanted you to see your mom as somebody important in our lives,” Emma explained. “It seemed like the best thing to do since you didn’t remember.”

Regina added, “We’re sorry for lying to you, dear.”

“You had a pretty good reason.” He shrugged, then looked at them intently again. “But now you totally are, right? It’s for real.”

“Yes,” his adoptive mother confirmed. “Once we started pretending, the truth of our feelings came out. Does your positive assessment of our relationship stand now that you remember?” Emma could see fear edging Regina’s expression.

Henry tipped his chin up defiantly. “On one condition.”

“Condition? Kid!” Emma was appalled at him.

“Let me tell you what it _is_ first, jeez, Ma.”

She pursed her lips, but nodded. “Okay, let’s hear it.”

“We have to all live here together.” At their startled looks, Henry scoffed. “Come on, we practically do anyway. Let’s call this one more thing you started out pretending and it turned out that you meant it.”

**

Emma could feel a charge between them tonight. It was less desperate than they’d been after their encounter with Zelena, but there had been a definite intensity and grasping quality to their touches since the burial, a need for each other. The blonde was therefore unsurprised to find the queen in wickedly short lingerie as she came into the bedroom—their bedroom, the realization hit her hard, if they were to do what Henry demanded.

As Regina bent over to pull the bedcovers back, the black scrap of silky material that could not really even charitably be called clothing rode up even ridiculously more, and “God, I love your ass” came falling out of Emma’s mouth.

The older woman hummed and rolled her hips provocatively. “Come here,” she purred over her shoulder.

The blonde crossed the intervening distance and melded herself to the queen’s back almost instantly, threading fingers through dark hair and pulling Regina’s head back to trail hot kisses from her jaw to her shoulder. She ran her other hand over the older woman’s body eagerly, loving the shifting textures of silky fabric and then soft skin and then silky material again slipping against the hardened points of the queen’s nipples.  And fuck- this was amazing, but really only teasing them both.

“I want to feel you,” the savior murmured, pulling her mouth away from Regina’s neck at last and separating their bodies just enough to start pulling the lingerie up and off her.

The queen swatted at her hands. “You’re wearing far more than I am.”

Emma obediently released the older woman and undressed herself. As she straightened from wrestling her jeans down her legs, she saw Regina pausing, one knee up on the bed and completely bare, to leer at her over the shoulder. The sight pulled a groan from the blonde’s throat, and she finished undressing and pressed against her again as soon as she could, nudging her completely up onto the bed and climbing up behind her. As they knelt, the queen’s perfect ass tucked against Emma’s hips just right.

Pulling them tight together, the savior reveled in the feeling of their bodies touching from chest to thighs, and when Regina turned her head over her shoulder again to kiss her it was even better. Now that the blonde had complete access to the older woman’s body, she spent many long minutes toying with her nipples, feather-light teasing touches and steady-firm rolling pressure and sharp-hard pulling pinches.

Soon Regina was gasping against her mouth, and finally she broke the kiss completely to plead, “Emma,” pulling one hand off a breast and down between her legs.

Then it was Emma’s turn to gasp, because the queen was absolutely dripping wet. She began long strokes with the flat of her fingers, rubbing Regina’s clit as she slid down, pressing her fingertips as much inside as she could reach from this angle, then back up. With her other hand, the blonde held the older woman against her, elbow tucked against her ribs and hand flat on her sternum. Fuck, Regina’s happy little hums and sighs and whimpers were perfection.

Peering down to appreciate the view from this angle, the savior’s attention was captivated by the delectable line of the queen’s collarbone, and she groaned and tucked her head forward to get her mouth on it, sucking and nipping, making the older woman moan deep in her chest. 

Soon Regina’s hips were twitching hard, her head lolled back on Emma’s shoulder. The blonde switched to rubbing steady circles on her clit, feeling the tension in the queen’s body ramping up and up and up.

And then Regina was coming, covering her own mouth with a hasty hand as her body arched sharply.

The older woman collapsed back against Emma, who stroked her thighs and hips and ribs with warm hands as she trembled for long moments.

Eventually Regina rolled up onto her knees again and turned to face the blonde and claimed her mouth possessively, reaching down to stroke between her legs. Finding Emma incredibly wet, she groaned, breaking their kiss and pushing at the blonde’s shoulders, demanding, “I want to taste you.”

“God,” Emma breathed, getting onto her back as quickly as she could.

Regina smirked. “It’s Your Majesty,” she corrected, then trailed her mouth from the savior’s raised knee up her thigh. Emma’s chuckle caught in her throat as the queen’s tongue made contact with her clit, turning into a groan. This felt so goddamn good, and the blonde’s hips were rolling against her mouth immediately, uncontrollably, desperately.

After spending so long working Regina up, Emma was close to coming almost instantly, but she wanted more. Tucking her fingers under the queen’s chin, she coaxed her mouth away for a second.

“Don’t make me stop,” Regina insisted, whining ever so slightly.

“Fuck, you’re perfect,” Emma breathed before she could help it. “No, of course not. It’s just, this is so good, but the only thing that would make it better is to have you in my mouth at the same time.”  

“Oh!” Surprise flashed over Regina’s face for just a split second before being replaced with a pleased smirk, and she had herself shifted around to give the blonde access in no time flat.

And god- yes- this- was so right, the heat and slickness of the queen’s exquisite pussy and the almost unbearably good rhythm of her nimble tongue on Emma. They were a complete circuit of pleasure, moaning into each other, both as eager to give as to receive, spiraling quickly toward ecstasy.

Emma came first, shuddering out of her licking for a moment. She quickly resumed eating the queen, bringing her over the edge too with a bit more flicking and sucking. 

They lay side-by-side for a long moment, after that, panting, letting their pulses slow, then arranged themselves the proper direction on the bed. The blonde found herself spooning the queen, nuzzling her neck and shoulder and murmuring “I love- having sex with you.” Emma succeeded at willing herself not to tense up, profoundly grateful to be out of Regina’s line of sight at this moment, hoping she hadn’t heard the hitch of substitution.

The blonde was relieved when the older woman chuckled, “As do I, dear.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kind of a long chapter because the sex scene became voluminous. I’m sure you don’t mind?


	14. Chapter 14

Regina was making an elaborate breakfast when Emma stumbled down the stairs the next morning. Blinking sleepily, the blonde saw Henry, who was parked on a stool at the center island, sneak a piece of bacon, and she shot him a disapproving look. He just grinned at her as he chewed, and she couldn’t help but laugh.

This drew the queen’s attention, and their son froze, caught greasy-handed.

She scowled at him for a second, but Emma could see her mouth twitching, and finally she relented. “I suppose that’s all right,” she said. “This is a celebration breakfast after all.”

“Celebration?” Emma repeated, still not quite awake.

“Between restoring Henry’s memories and capturing the Wicked Witch, I think we have quite a lot to celebrate, don’t you?” Regina’s mood was positively upbeat, and with the sparkle in her eye as she met the blonde’s gaze Emma wanted to think really good sex the night before should be included in the reasons.

“Yeah!” Henry exclaimed, pulling their attention back to him. “Let’s celebrate! Like, have a party!”

“A party, dear?”

“Yeah, let’s get people together and stuff. I haven’t gotten to see anyone since I’ve been back except at the funeral and that was awful- And I know it was because of my memory, but now that I do remember- And, like, we really do have lots of reasons to be happy and stuff and-” he trailed off, looking hopefully at them.

“He gets that from you,” Regina said dryly.

“He gets _what_ from me?” Emma was genuinely perplexed.

“Rambling. And the puppydog eyes.”

Emma scoffed, then grinned at her.

“Are you guys sure you weren't dating before?” Henry asked. “Because you always looked at each other like that.”

“And he totally gets being a snarky pain in my ass from you, Your Majesty.”

**

While they did eventually give in to Henry’s party pleading, Regina even agreeing to host at the mayoral mansion, first they had some less pleasant issues to attend to. They had really only been able to triage the situation thus far, and they had a late-morning meeting scheduled with the remnants of the old White Council to strategize about a permanent solution to the problem of Zelena.

Henry had strenuously objected to staying at Granny’s until they were done, insisting that he had his memories back and had faced down Pan and wasn’t he entitled to be treated like an adult yet? Given that they were likely to be discussing things like execution, however, it was really out of the question, and he pouted something fierce until Emma pointed out that he could spend the time planning the party with Ruby. She felt a little bad taking advantage of her son’s growing crush on her friend, but figured Ruby was a grown werewolf and could handle herself.  

And indeed, something drastic was looking increasingly likely. The meeting had come to somewhat of an impasse, since the cell they had the witch in wasn’t a long-term solution, but they clearly couldn’t let her go free either. It was then that the Blue Fairy breezed in, acting like she owned the place, announced that she had an answer, and dropped onto the table the magical cuff Greg and Tamara had used to trap Regina.

Emma saw all of the color drain from the queen’s face, and reached out to rub a soothing hand on her back. She realized then that between the trigger gem nearly killing everyone and then having to chase Henry to Neverland they’d never really talked about what Regina had suffered other than that it had involved electricity and pain.

Regardless, Emma had seen enough trauma survivors in the foster system to recognize the symptoms, and the conversation went on without them for long moments, the older woman clearly struggling to keep her breathing steady and the blonde's attention riveted to her, keeping the contact and trying to be a steady, calming presence.

“Emma? Regina?” the savior heard finally. As she turned to face her mother, she kept her hand resting warm against the queen.

“Yeah, sorry,” she said, though only to be polite. Regina’s emotional state came first. “What?”

Snow turned her attention to the queen. “Regina, will this cuff work to neutralize Zelena? Could we set her free if she wore it?”

The blonde saw the older woman swallow hard, then straighten as she inhaled. “It would protect us from her doing any magic, yes. However, she still might attempt attack by more conventional means.”

“What if we made her forget?” Emma blurted, then flushed as attention turned to her. Squaring her shoulders, she explained, “Can we give her a new identity, make her think she actually _is_ the nice-lady midwife she pretended to be? Plus the cuff? We don’t have to kill her or lock her up but she won’t want to hurt any of us.”

“It usually takes something on the order of Regina’s or Zelena’s curses to erase or replace memories so completely,” Mother Superior noted. “It would be an incredible magical undertaking.”

“I believe we can do it,” Regina said firmly. “Emma and I.” There was some perplexed muttering at that, and the queen rolled her eyes, explaining, “We _did_ cause an eclipse in Neverland. Emma has the raw power and I have the knowledge and control. We can try it at the new moon.”

“So roughly two weeks?” Emma said. “That’s not too long to have her locked up. Are we all agreed?” There was a murmur of agreement as she looked around the table, and she exhaled. “Well that’s that, then.” Meeting Regina’s eye, she saw the older woman dip her head slightly in agreement. “We’d like to invite everyone over this afternoon for a party. Just to celebrate solving our Zelena problem and Henry remembering and everything.”

 The agreement was much more enthusiastic at this suggestion.

**

“Hey babe, I- Fuck-” Emma stopped dead three steps into the room, sputtering at the sight of Regina bent slightly over in an almost summery dress that showed off considerably more of her legs than her usual pencil skirts but still hugged every curve perfectly.

The queen finished locking away her spellbooks in the desk drawer and then met the blonde’s gaze. “Such a filthy mouth, dear. Why don’t you come put it to good use?” Now that Regina was no longer heartbroken, the other side of her was resurfacing, the one that was passionate, powerful, demanding, and mind-meltingly hot.

The savior laughed. “I’ve created a monster.” Seeing the smoldering look on the older woman’s face, she groaned. “A sexy, insatiable monster, but Regina, half the town is out there and the other half is scheduled to arrive any minute.”

“I don’t care. I want you on your knees for me _right now_.”

Who could resist such a demand from a woman this obscenely hot? The blonde pulled the study door shut behind her, then did as she was told, lifting Regina up onto the heavy wooden desk and skimming her dress up her thighs. The queen’s whisper of a thong was easy to push aside and fuck- she was already wet and felt so goddamn good in Emma’s mouth.

Tasting Regina was every kind of right. The savior loved the heat of her and the slick sounds her tongue made against her. She loved the velvet softness of her and the insistent firmness of her clit. She loved the moan that escaped the older woman’s throat as she pushed her fingers inside and the way her hips rocked trying to get Emma impossibly deeper.

“Fuck, so good,” the savior groaned. “I love your pussy. You’re so hot and tight and all _mine_.”

“Shut up and eat me,” Regina commanded, pulling Emma’s mouth back to her by the hair.

Jesus, why would she ever have resisted this? Fucking Regina was exquisite and she was going to make her come so goddamn hard-

“Emma, honey, I need you to OH MY GOD!”

Between Regina trying frantically to haul her dress down from around her waist and Emma trying to keep her body between her mother and her partner, they fumbled a bit.

Once the queen was covered, the blonde turned back to Snow, who was hyperventilating against the doorframe, clutching her gravid belly.

“Snow, I’m-” she reached out to her, realized that her hand was still shiny with Regina, and wiped it hurriedly on her jeans. And her mouth, with the other hand.

“OH MY GOD,” her mother said again, but this time she was staring down at herself—and at the small puddle forming at her feet. “My water broke. My water broke! Charming!”

**

“This is entirely your fault,” Regina muttered as they shifted uncomfortably on the hospital waiting room’s hard plastic chairs.

“It’s my fault my mom walked in on us?” Emma was incredulous.

“If you hadn’t stopped to rhapsodize about my cunt I could have come,” the queen hissed, and the blonde could hear her frustration.

The savior wasn’t sure what to say to that. “I’m sorry?”

This did nothing to lessen the way Regina’s eyes were blazing. “You should be! I am three seconds from doing something entirely undignified like dragging you into the nearest utility closet.”

“Fuck, baby,” Emma groaned.

Regina scoffed. “I have half a mind to never let you fuck me again.”

“What are you guys whispering about?” Henry asked, looking up from his video game.

“Nothing, dear,” Regina answered, but glared at Emma once more time before picking up a magazine.

**

Fortunately, second births tend to be relatively on the speedy side, and it was only a few hours later that Charming was able to announce triumphantly, “It’s a girl!”

As they gathered around the window to the nursery a little while later, peering at the red, wrinkled form in the crib, Emma blinked as the reality of it hit her. “Wow, that’s- with all the stuff I haven’t really thought that much about it, but-” she sputtered for a moment. “Wow, I have a sister.”

“Sisters aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, dear,” the queen snarked. “Take it from me.”

“Regina,” she admonished.

The door to the nursery swung open as a nurse entered, and an ear-splitting wail drifted out. At Emma’s wince, the older woman flicked an elegant eyebrow and said, “I rest my case.”

“You’re awful,” the blonde laughed. “Good thing I love you.” Her eyes went wide, realizing what she’d said.

Regina just looked at her for a long, long moment, as if thinking hard, and Emma felt panic rising in her chest. Slowly, realization crept across the queen’s face. "Say it again," she insisted.

"I love you," Emma murmured obediently, not sure where this was going.

“And I love you,” Regina replied, sounding somewhat surprised to be saying it.

Emma’s heart felt impossibly full, and she knew she was grinning like an idiot as she leaned in to kiss Regina slow and sweet.

Across town, even in the fairy dust-reinforced cell, Zelena felt the pulse of magic. Her curse was broken.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With this chapter, the plot is now done. There will be an epilogue that allows me to skip ahead and write them more settled into their relationship, by which I mean more sexually adventurous. Expect wall-to-wall sexytimes. Thank you all so, so much for going on this journey with me. 10,000 hits! 500 kudos! When I got stuck, it was my commitment to you all that kept me going, and I sincerely hope you feel your faith in me has paid off.
> 
> They were interrupted because, like so many SQ authors, I for some reason really enjoy torturing Emma, and in this case Regina was collateral damage. And yes, Regina is totally wearing one of those Lana-in-Regard-magazine dresses in that scene. 
> 
> True love’s kiss doesn’t require saying the three words, I know, but it does require mutuality and that means recognition for me, so it couldn’t happen until Regina realized. Sorry if this does violence to the mechanics of magic on the show.


	15. Epilogue Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As tends to happen when I write a story where SwanQueen have impediments to getting it on and then a smutty epilogue, the epilogue is epically long and now two parts (cf True Love’s Near-Miss). You’re welcome.

Things slowly returned to normal over the next several months—or, at least, as normal as Storybrooke got. Zelena had, evidently, been successfully reprogrammed. She cheerfully opened a baby-supply store when, perhaps unsurprisingly, no one wanted to retain her services as midwife.

But it was a full six months before Regina really felt comfortable letting Henry out of her sight. Emma woke in the night time after time with other side of the bed empty and cold, only to find the older woman standing in the doorway of their son’s room, watching him sleep, weeping. Each time, she’d wrap the queen up and feather kisses along her temple-cheek-jaw for as long as it took for her to be ready to come back to bed.

Requests to stay over with friends were always denied, and Henry understood even as he chafed at it.

And Emma understood, even as she chafed at it, the dampener this put on their sex life. It was still entirely mind-blowing, of course, but always in the bedroom, at night, with Henry verifiably asleep. She couldn’t ever really fuck her queen as intensely as she wanted, try to make her come as hard as she thought she could, for fear of headboard thudding and screams.

But tonight, Regina had finally been convinced to let Henry stay over at Hansel and Gretel’s, and Emma had grand plots for what she hoped would be a spectacular evening. If the older woman would ever agree to call it a day, that was. She’d had Emma helping her rearrange the house all day long, and while the work wasn’t strenuous it was definitely not what the blonde wanted to be doing now that Henry had been picked up.

Turning with yet another box of elegant knickknacks to be shuffled to the attic, she caught the queen leaning against the door fame, leering at her.

“God, I love your arm muscles,” Regina purred.

“Yeah?” Emma asked, flexing them extra as she set the box aside and turned to face the older woman.

“It’s really quite thrilling how strong you are.”

“You mean like this?” Emma asked playfully, crossing the small space between them and picking Regina up.

The queen groaned and wrapped her legs around her immediately. “Yes! So attractive.”

Emma hummed, moving past the bookcases to pin the older woman against the wall with her hips as she began kissing her neck fervently. After a few moments the blonde let go with one arm experimentally. Discovering that between Regina’s legs and the wall she could get away with just one arm, she slid her newly free hand around the queen’s thigh to stroke her through her pants.

“Don’t tease me,” the queen insisted. Emma refused the command for a bit, rubbing at the juncture of the older woman’s thighs at a leisurely pace, reveling in feeling her twitch, continuing to suck at her pulse point until Regina _whined_ , “Emma.”

She set the older woman down and brought her hands to the fastenings of elegant mayoral slacks, stripping her bare from the waist down in record time and picking her up again, Regina hopping up agreeably. As they resumed their former position against the wall, the brush of Emma’s fingertips against where Regina had grown quite slick had them both groaning.

As the blonde settled in to stroking slow circles on the older woman’s clit, Regina’s head thudded back against the wall, and Emma paused, worried.

“Don’t stop,” the queen hissed, and the blonde nipped at her throat and resumed her caress. Pushing inside was off the table in this position, but Emma’s plans for later would hopefully more than make up for that. So the savior just kept touching, rubbing, working the older woman up.

Soon Regina was shuddering, unable to buck in this position but clenching her thighs around Emma’s hips, whimpering.

“Let me hear you,” Emma demanded, sucking the queen’s earlobe into her mouth as she intensified her caress, feeling her tensing, getting closer.

“Oh God,” the older woman moaned in response, and she did stop restraining herself.

When the blonde added, “We have the house to ourselves, and tonight I’m going to make you scream,” Regina came with a loud moan, arms and legs gripping her hard.

Emma held her steady against the wall for long moments, nuzzling the queen’s neck and shoulders soothingly even as her arms got a little shaky.

“Let me down,” Regina murmured at last, and the savior set her down gently. As Emma turned to kiss her sweetly, the queen planted a hand in the center of her chest and pushed her back gently but steadily. Baffled, the blonde went along, walking backwards three steps, four, until her next stride was brought up short by the desk.

Regina flicked her wrist imperiously at the savior’s clothes, and she found herself stark naked. Reversing the flick, the queen was gloriously bare as well. “Why don’t I ever think of-” Emma began, only to be silenced by a demanding kiss.

After a few seconds, the older woman pushed her back once again, pulling her mouth away to command, “Sit.”

The blonde did as she was told, then stared down, mesmerized, as the queen pulled her thighs apart and settled between them, because the fierce look in those bright brown eyes was insanely hot all by itself.

But then the older woman’s mouth was between her legs, relentless and demanding and fuck- being _possessed_ felt amazing. Emma couldn’t even buck or clutch at Regina, couldn’t hold herself up to watch, could only fall back against the desk and take it because her body belonged so completely to the queen in this moment.

Tossed on a sea of sensation, she found herself panting, “Fuck, baby, yes, so good, don’t stop, yes, yes-”

Abruptly, she was gloriously full of Regina’s fingers as the older woman’s tongue continued to do indescribably perfect things, and for long moments Emma didn’t know how her body could survive feeling this amazing.

Then she was coming, her head slamming back against the desk as she arched hard, and she didn’t even fucking care.

Still blinking between the orgasm and the blunt-force trauma, the blonde smiled goofily as Regina climbed up on the desk with her.

“Are you alright?” the older woman asked, clearly concerned.

“Goddamn amazing, baby,” the savior hummed. “Goddamn amazing. Come kiss me.”

The queen smirked at her for a second as she crawled farther up, then leaned down to capture her lips hungrily. Emma decided she’d never get tired of tasting herself on Regina’s mouth, and she happily lost herself in this new set of delightful sensations from the older woman’s nimble tongue for a long moment.

When they finally parted slightly, Emma realized Regina was still hovering on all fours over her and got an idea. Reaching down between them, she gripped the older woman’s thighs and coaxed her upwards until the queen was astride her face, then pulled her hips down. They groaned in stereo as they made contact.

The blonde knew she would never, ever get enough of Regina on her tongue. The older woman got so amazingly _wet_ and was so explosively responsive to every tiny touch, breathy little sounds falling from her perfect lips. Emma lapped and flicked and sucked and didn’t care at all that her hungry little groans and slurping sounds were totally obscene.

Before long the queen began moaning in earnest and moving her hips to meet the blonde’s touch and fuck- the savior fell in love all over again with how badly Regina _wanted_ this, wanted her. The feeling of the older woman’s pussy sliding over her face from nose to chin was amazing, and she wanted to push her tongue inside and flick upward against her clit from below and roll her tongue down firm and flat all at once.

But then Regina gripped both sides of her head to keep her right- there, and Emma was totally okay with her taking charge of the situation. The blonde reveled in the way the muscles in the older woman’s thighs and ass clenched under her hands as the queen rocked on her mouth, and she kept her tongue in constant motion, wanting this to be good-better-best.

Regina’s motions became shorter and sharper, and then she went perfectly still as she came. And she was so fucking beautiful that Emma couldn’t help smiling against her.

The blonde pressed soft kisses everywhere she could reach for long moments as the older woman recovered. As Regina settled back onto her haunches, Emma grinned up at her and suggested, “While I’m really thrilled to have gotten to use the office finally, how about we take this to the bedroom?”

Regina looked confused. “Eager to go back to routine already, dear?”

“No, but I got us something, and it’s in the bedroom.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally making good on things I said I’d fic. In my defense, they’ve been here in the Epilogue all along, waiting for us to get here. So in Epilogue I, I present to you Emma’s gun show allowing her to pick Regina up (http://angstbotfic.tumblr.com/post/81926729573/livingtheindefinable-angstbotfic). More delayed gratification in Epilogue II.
> 
> And, as one bonus to the 3x18 seance scene, I got a better sense of this room's layout just in time to finalize this chapter.


	16. Epilogue Part Two

“So what is it that you’ve purchased for us, dear?” Regina asked as they entered the bedroom, direct as ever.

Emma rummaged in her sock drawer for a moment and fished out the strap-on, straps dangling, holding it up for the queen’s assessment with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.

The older woman looked a tiny bit impressed despite herself. “How, pray tell, did you come to buy such a thing?”

“Research,” the blonde answered with a playful lilt.

Regina chuckled. “What have you learned from your consumption of lesbian pornography, then?”

“How ‘bout I show you instead?”

The queen raised a playfully snarky eyebrow and crossed her arms, and the way she held onto her poise even when completely naked sent desire racing through Emma all over again. The blonde walked toward her, tossed the toy onto the bed, then leaned in, pausing just short of a real kiss. For a few seconds they were just _there_ , breath mingling, mouths barely touching, just _feeling_ how much they both wanted this.

Then the savior cupped the older woman’s face in both hands and completed the motion, kissing Regina decisively, and god- just the pressing together of their lips was electric, still, every time, even after months of kissing regularly. The savior flicked her tongue over her queen’s lips, stepping closer to intensify their contact, only to be startled into a gasp as her nipples brushed the older woman’s arms, still folded. Regina took the opportunity to both lick into her mouth with an insistent tongue and move her hands to Emma’s breasts.

The blonde groaned as the queen kneaded lightly and then brushed teasing fingertips over her nipples. Then she lost herself in the sensation of kissing Regina deeply while the older woman sent waves of pleasure through her with firm pinches and pulls at her nipples, floating on how good it felt until one particularly sharp-sweet pinch made her moan into her queen’s mouth.

And god- she needed to be making Regina feel this amazing too. The savior slid her hands up from where they rested on the older woman’s waist, but just as her thumbs reached insistently firm nipples the queen pulled one hand away and swatted at her wrist, breaking the kiss to demand, “Wait your turn.”

Regina chuckled as Emma whined low in her throat at that, tilting her chin to kiss up her voicebox and then around her jawline, murmuring, “Impatient, dear?”

“Yes,” Emma groaned. “Dammit.” But she moved her hands obediently back to her queen’s hips, reaching around to dig eager fingers into her firm, perfect ass.

After a few more moments of neck kissing and nipple play, Emma had an idea. Sliding her hands down slightly to where the older woman’s ass met her thighs, she lifted her again. Startled, Regina gripped her shoulders with her hands and her waist with her thighs. Then the blonde turned to the bed, and half-sat, half-fell backwards, ending up on her back, Regina on top on her hands and knees. The savior only had to shift slightly to get her mouth on a nipple, and she sighed happily.

Regina started to laugh at her again, but it turned into a moan as Emma added teeth to her sucking and brought a hand up to the unattended breast. Soon the older woman was bucking her hips, grinding slightly against the blonde’s abs, and the slick feel of her was fucking amazing.

Finally, the queen groaned, “Emma, fuck me already,” and it was so hot to hear her demand it that Emma moaned against the flesh in her mouth.

Letting go, she kissed the older woman sweetly on the sternum, humming, “Yes ma’am,” smiling, loving the easy rhythms of their sex, pleased that she’d been right that Regina would want it first.

“Okay baby, let me up,” the blonde said, and Regina obligingly slid off of her. Seeing the queen about to move further, Emma added, “No, stay there,” standing behind her now, placing a firm hand between her shoulder blades and nipping at the spot at the base of her spine that always drove her wild. “I want you on your hands and knees for me, my queen,” she explained. Regina moaned, but stilled.

Emma grabbed the toy and fiddled with the straps, struggling a little even though she had totally _practiced_ on those rare occasions she was home alone. Then she made the mistake of glancing at the queen, whose expression as she gazed over her shoulder was pure desire, and all of her breath left her in a rush.

The blonde’s hands finished the job without any input from her brain, because the older woman looked so fucking good all wet and open and on all fours at the edge of the bed like this that she just _had_ to have her in her mouth. Emma dropped to her knees and began sliding her tongue up the length of her, moaning hungrily at how good she tasted.

She lapped and flicked and sucked like her life depended on it for a moment, but then Regina growled, “Damn it, Ms. Swan, if you don’t fuck me, so help me-”

Emma left off licking as soon as the queen began the complaint, standing and lining the toy up quickly, such that she was able to press inside with one slow stroke almost as soon as Regina’s threat trailed off, pulling a groan from her throat.

The savior began pushing into her slow and strong and steady, her motion focused, almost all the way out and then in to the hilt. Little “mm”s and “uh”s and “ohs” began falling from Regina’s perfect lips with Emma’s cadence, and she concentrated on listening to them, reading her responses, reveling in the sensation she was giving her.

“More,” the older woman insisted after a little while. Emma nudged the queen farther up the bed and got up behind her. Sliding the toy back inside with ease because Regina was sopping, she pulled the older woman’s head back by the hair, making her arch as she began thrusting harder now, smiling as it made her gasp, “God!”

But Regina was nothing if not demanding, and before long she moaned, “Harder.”

The blonde released the queen’s hair to grab both hips and began fucking her relentlessly, reducing the older woman almost immediately to choking sobs of pleasure. Soon Regina’s body drifted toward the bed, her knees sliding outward and up, opening her ever more to Emma’s strokes, and the blonde was almost on top of her now, the both of them sweaty now with effort.

“Don’t stop- don’t stop- don’t stop- god- yes-” Regina panted.

Emma wrapped one hand to circle older woman’s clit, supporting herself with one arm as the entire rest of her body thrust harder and harder, her hips slamming against the queen’s perfect ass now, the bed thudding into the wall.

“Don’t- you- ever- stop- fucking- me!”

The blonde was in full agreement with this demand, couldn’t do anything in this moment other than keep fucking this perfect woman, didn’t want to do anything else maybe ever again.

And then Regina was coming, screaming into the mattress as every muscle clenched.

Emma kissed along the knots of her queen’s spine for a few moments, then pulled out carefully. Regina stayed put for a few moments more, a little breathless. Eventually, she slowly unbent herself and rolled onto her back, stretching luxuriously like a cat in her post-orgasm lassitude.

“Fuck, you’re so fucking hot,” Emma breathed.

“I know,” the queen smirked. “It’s why you’re going to make me come again,” she added, then pinned the blonde with a fierce look, biting her lip and spreading her legs in invitation.

“God I love you,” Emma murmured. She obligingly started to move into position, was on her knees between the older woman’s calves, had every intention of moving up and filling her with the strap-on again, because damn she loved how Regina could go and go and go, but as she glanced down she found her mouth pulled inexorably to taste her queen once more.

After only a few strokes of her tongue, she reluctantly pulled herself away, muttering, “Sorry, can’t keep my mouth off you. Too good.”

Regina raised an eyebrow. “Why on earth would you apologize for that? I _would_ rather have your cock right now,” and Emma groaned at the directness of the statement, “but you can assume your tongue is welcome any time.”

“Fuck, baby,” Emma murmured, moving up between the older woman’s thighs. Wrapping her forearms under Regina’s legs, she lifted until the queen’s back was entirely off the bed, touching only at the shoulders, arched with her ass coming to rest against Emma’s hips as she slowly guided the toy in.

As the blonde started a steady in-and-out motion, taking the older woman’s weight on her arms, the burn of effort the position required was entirely worth it, because she could watch the play of sensation on her face. Regina was absolutely gorgeous when getting fucked, all hungry eyes and flushed cheeks and parted lips.

 “Harder, Emma,” the queen groaned, and Emma withdrew and lowered her back to the bed, then pushed in again, leaning over to rest her weight on her hands and free up her lower body to thrust with more vigor.

“Yes!” Regina hissed, digging her nails into the blonde’s shoulders and wrapping her legs around her hips to get her deeper.

Taking Regina from behind had been glorious, but it was incredibly better to feel the older woman’s thighs flexing as she met Emma’s every thrust with her own. They fit together so well, complemented each other perfectly, were rough and tender by turns but always intensely connected to each other’s shifting desires.

“I need- I need-” Regina struggled to finish the sentence, “more,” and clearly she didn’t quite know what “more” might be. But Emma had an idea. Untangling the queen’s legs from around her, she lifted Regina’s ankles over her shoulders and resumed rolling her hips.

“God,” Regina moaned. “Yes. That. So deep.”

And oh- this angle was perfect, startling Emma out of her rhythm at the jolt of pleasure as the base of the cock hit her clit just right. She started thrusting again almost immediately, because it was searingly good to be making Regina feel amazing and heading toward orgasm right along with her. The savior’s motions got shorter and sharper as she got close, and hovered on the brink for several long moments, wanting to come but wanting to make her queen come first.

And then Regina snapped into a perfect arc of ecstasy and the way she moaned “Emma” made the blonde come right along with her.

With every nerve still singing, it was all the savior could do to pull out, let Regina’s legs down, and collapse sideways onto the bed. The two of them lay in a daze for many long minutes.

Eventually Regina rolled onto her side to face Emma. “Have you recovered?” the queen asked, gently stroking a stray strand of hair back from her sweaty forehead and cupping her cheek.

The savior smiled goofily. “I’m pretty sure I can feel my toes again, yeah.”

“Good,” Regina chuckled, getting up onto her knees. As she waved her hand, the toy vanished from Emma and reappeared on her. “On your back, dear.”

“Unh,” was all the blonde could muster as she did as she was told. The older woman settled between her thighs, just looking at Emma for long moments, their eyes locking, and suddenly it felt like it had been too long since they had kissed. Reaching up, the blonde threaded her fingers through Regina’s hair, urging her down, and when their mouths met it was sweet and hot all at once and achingly right.

As she continued to kiss Emma deeply, the queen pushed in slowly. The blonde immediately slid arms and legs around her to keep her right- fucking- there, because god, having Regina inside her, cock and tongue in tandem, their breasts rubbing together, was fucking amazing.

The queen fucked her thoroughly, but in a way that was unhurried, and Emma felt like she shouldn’t be so close already, but it was so right being filled like this that she felt herself spiraling quickly. There was something almost painfully intimate about the sliding of sweat-slick skin and the connection of their hot wet mouths and the mingled slickness on the shared toy.

As if reading her mind, Regina pulled back slightly to meet her eyes, looking down at her with such tenderness Emma thought her heart might burst right then even as her queen’s deep, steady thrusts were overloading her body. “I love you,” the blonde found herself murmuring.

“And I love you. Come for me, my darling.” And she did.

Regina pulled away just enough to vanish the toy, then curled up against Emma as the blonde fought to regain her breath.

The best part of having magic was that, when one found oneself exhausted from lengthy and vigorous sex but faced with sheets and people quite covered in bodily fluids, it could be solved with a couple flicks of the wrist, which Regina made Emma do for the practice.

As they wrapped themselves around each other for the night, Emma murmured, “I can’t get over how lucky I am.”

“As am I,” Regina hummed.

“Aren’t you glad we pretended to be dating?” Emma asked, playfully nipping at the queen’s shoulder.

“Fishing for compliments on your harebrained schemes doesn’t suit you, dear.”

“But I’m so cute!” The blonde squeaked. She was always a little silly after a few orgasms.

“Idiot,” the older woman laughed.

“But I’m your idiot.”

“Always.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And in Epilogue II, I fic this image (http://6yillustrator.tumblr.com/post/75852646054), and this image (http://helebing.tumblr.com/post/83622259631) plus give you Emma receiving with strapon, which people like but I don’t do often. 
> 
> And this also got pretty long, but I am again guessing this is not a problem.
> 
> Thus ends this wild ride, folks. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.


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